Assessing global sustainability performance, imbalance, and coordination over space and time

Adopted by 193 countries in 2015, the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to address urgent global challenges by 2030. However, consistent and comprehensive assessments of countries' spatiotemporal performance, and of the balance and coordination among the SDGs, remain scarce. Here, we developed three indices-the Sustainable Development Relative Performance Index (SDRPI), Sustainable Development Gini Index (SDGI), and Sustainable Development Coordination Index (SDCI)-to measure global SDG performance, imbalances, and coordination over time and across space. Results show that most countries improved their sustainable development performance from 2000 to 2020, with imbalances narrowing and low-income countries achieving faster progress than high-income ones. Several Eastern European countries recorded the largest SDRPI gains, while Sweden, Spain, and Poland exhibited the lowest SDGI scores, reflecting minimal imbalances. Low-income countries also displayed strong coordination in SDG improvements. These findings underscore the urgency of targeted governance and policies to address underperforming SDG targets and foster balanced, coordinated global sustainable development.