Fewer than five years to 2030: the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026

On 7 July 2026 the United Nations released The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, presented at the opening of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, held in New York from 7 to 15 July 2026. With fewer than five years left before the 2030 deadline, the document measures the state of progress of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015.

The 2026 Report and the High-level Political Forum

The Sustainable Development Goals Report is the annual publication through which the United Nations reports on progress towards the 2030 Agenda. The 2026 edition was released on 7 July, at the opening of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), convened under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The Forum was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 7 to 15 July 2026, with the ministerial segment scheduled from 13 to 16 July, under the theme of transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda.

Each year the Forum reviews in depth a group of Goals. In 2026 the review covered Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation), Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy), Goal 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), Goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and Goal 17 (partnerships for the Goals). Thirty-six countries presented their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), among them Italy. The Forum is due to close on 15 July with the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration intended to guide implementation policies.

Progress recorded since 2015

The Report documents measurable results achieved since 2015. Nearly one billion people gained access to safely managed drinking water and 1.2 billion to safely managed sanitation. Electricity now reaches 92 per cent of the world population. Internet access rose from 40 to 74 per cent. New HIV infections fell by 30 per cent between 2015 and 2024 and AIDS-related deaths by 35 per cent. Social protection covers more than half of the world population for the first time. The share of births attended by skilled health personnel rose from 80 to 87 per cent between 2015 and 2025. Renewable electricity generating capacity per capita grew by 14 per cent between 2023 and 2024, reaching 2.2 times the 2015 level.

The Report also notes an often overlooked advance, described as the data revolution: a decade ago data were available for about half of the indicators, whereas today a global database of more than 3.2 million data points covers nearly every indicator, and makes it possible to identify where progress is accelerating and where gaps persist.

Gaps and regressions

Alongside these advances, the Report notes widespread delays. Of the 139 targets for which trend data are available, only 36 per cent are on track or making moderate progress; 49 per cent are advancing too slowly and 15 per cent have regressed below 2015 levels. One person in ten still lives in extreme poverty, and that share is estimated at 10 per cent in 2026, just three percentage points below the 2015 value. About 2.3 billion people face moderate or severe food insecurity. Two hundred and seventy-three million children and young people remain out of school, and one young person aged 15 to 24 in five is not in education, employment or training.

None of the gender equality targets are on track, although the share of women in parliaments has grown, rising to 27.4 per cent of seats from 22.3 per cent in 2015. About 1.16 billion people, that is one urban resident in four, live in informal settlements. On the climate front, in 2025 global temperatures reached 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest value in the past two million years, while the number of people affected by climate-related disasters has more than doubled since 2015. The Report also records a rise in conflicts and forced displacement, which climbed to more than 117.8 million people as of December 2025.

The priorities set out in the Report

The Report describes the Goals as a shared roadmap for peace, prosperity and sustainability, and observes that progress becomes possible when political commitment, financing, innovation and international cooperation move together. The stated priority is to scale up what works. On the financial side, the document points to the need to close an annual gap estimated at about 4 trillion dollars, through the Sevilla Commitment and the reform of the international financial architecture, and to strengthen statistical systems through the Medellín Framework, so as to direct resources towards the most vulnerable populations.

Among the levers highlighted are the acceleration of the energy transition, the use of frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, in support of sustainable development, gender equality as a cross-cutting priority and the strengthening of multilateral cooperation. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua linked the achievement of the Goals to the ability to scale up the experiences that have already delivered results. Development financing remains a critical point: in 2025 official development assistance fell by 23.1 per cent, the sharpest annual decline ever recorded, while the external debt of low and middle income countries reached a record 8.9 trillion dollars in 2024.

Outlook

The High-level Political Forum closes on 15 July 2026 with the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration, an outcome intended to provide guidance for the implementation of the Goals; the ministerial segment is scheduled until 16 July. According to the Report, the choices of the next four years on financing, cooperation and collective crisis response will have lasting effects. What remains to be defined is how to close the financing gap, the reform of the international financial architecture and the strengthening of the data systems needed to direct resources towards the most vulnerable populations. The next edition of the Report will update the measurement of the targets ahead of the 2030 deadline.