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On 15 October 2026 the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) presented in New York the World Social Report 2026, entitled “The New Economics of Social Inclusion: Making Transformations Work for All”. The report examines the link between ongoing economic, digital and energy transformations and social inclusion, and sets out public policy priorities at national and international level.
The report and its approach
According to the media advisory published by the United Nations, the launch took place on 15 October 2026 in New York, with a video message from Secretary-General António Guterres and remarks by two UN DESA officials, Bjørg Sandkjær and Rashmi Banga.
The report defines social inclusion as the process of improving the terms of participation in society for disadvantaged people, through opportunities, resources, voice and respect for rights. The core argument, as reported in the UN DESA press release, is that transformations are inevitable while exclusion is not: according to the report, investing early in inclusion is not only fairer but also makes economic sense. The evidence analysed covers 168 countries over 25 years.
Reference data
The press release and the text of the report provide some baseline figures. In 2025 about 2.2 billion people, or 26% of the world population, had no access to the internet. In 2023, 47.6% of the world population, about 3.8 billion people, received no social protection benefit. Between 2000 and 2024 income inequality increased in more than 50 countries, including 23 high-income countries.
As regards climate risk, the press release states that, of 1.1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty, 887 million are exposed to at least one major climate hazard. On costs, the report estimates that delaying investment in social protection by ten years entails a loss of up to 12% of economic output compared with countries that invest early. For universal social protection floors in low- and middle-income countries, the text indicates a requirement of about 3.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), equal to about 1.4 trillion US dollars per year.
The SIT dashboard and the conversion gap
The report introduces the Socially Inclusive Transformation (SIT) dashboard, which covers 168 countries from 2000 to 2024 and is built on two pillars: transformation, which considers economic, energy and digital processes, and inclusiveness, which considers economic equity and social equity. The highest SIT scores are attributed to Malta, Ireland and Denmark, while most African countries cluster at lower levels and the results of Asian countries vary widely. According to the text, the weakest areas are social equity and energy transformation.
The dashboard shows a so-called conversion gap: countries with similar levels of income or transformation achieve very different inclusion outcomes. None of the top five countries on the transformation pillar (Malta, Ireland, the United States, Singapore, China) appears among the top five on the inclusiveness pillar (Belgium, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden). The report concludes that transformation does not produce inclusion automatically and that national policies, institutions and governance choices determine who contributes to change and who benefits from it.
Priorities set out in the report
The report proposes four national priorities. The first concerns building people’s adaptive capabilities through education, lifelong learning, digital and artificial intelligence skills, health systems and universal social protection. The second concerns universal access to affordable digital connectivity and to reliable, sustainable energy, including off-grid solutions for underserved communities. The third concerns inclusive labour markets, with decent work, equal pay, portable benefits and active labour-market programmes. The fourth concerns sharing prosperity more widely through wage-setting institutions, collective bargaining, profit-sharing and progressive taxation.
At international level the report refers to expanding fiscal space, access to affordable long-term development finance, lower debt-service burdens, broader access to technology and digital infrastructure and more representative global governance. On measurement, it indicates that GDP should be complemented by measures capturing the quality, distribution and durability of progress.
Outlook
The report is a UN DESA publication of analysis and recommendations. The text refers to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its principle of leaving no one behind, as well as to the Doha Political Declaration, linked to the Second World Summit for Social Development of 2025.
What remains to be defined is how individual countries will take up the priorities indicated, the resources allocated to social protection, connectivity and energy, and whether measures complementary to GDP will be adopted in national planning: the report itself assigns a decisive role to the policies, institutions and governance choices of each country. The SIT dashboard, which covers the period 2000-2024, provides a reference for comparing the results of different countries over time.
In dialogue with the 2030 Agenda
- Goal 1 (No poverty). The report indicates that 887 million of the 1.1 billion people in multidimensional poverty are exposed to at least one major climate hazard and puts the cost of universal social protection floors in low- and middle-income countries at about 3.3% of GDP.
- Goal 4 (Quality education). Education, lifelong learning and digital and artificial intelligence skills are listed among the means of building people’s adaptive capabilities.
- Goal 7 (Affordable and clean energy). Universal access to reliable, sustainable energy, including off-grid solutions, is among the national priorities of the report.
- Goal 8 (Decent work and economic growth). Decent work, equal pay, portable benefits and active labour-market programmes are referred to as conditions for inclusive labour markets.
- Goal 10 (Reduced inequalities). The report notes rising income inequality in more than 50 countries between 2000 and 2024 and places collective bargaining and progressive taxation among the measures for sharing prosperity.
- Goal 17 (Partnerships for the goals). Fiscal space, development finance, lower debt-service burdens, access to technology and more representative global governance are referred to as measures of international cooperation.
Sources
- UN DESA, press release “As societies transform, people are falling behind, with rising costs of exclusion, new UN report warns”: https://www.un.org/en/desa/as-societies-transform-people-are-falling-behind-with-rising-costs-of-exclusion-new-un-report-warns
- United Nations, Sustainable Development, press release on the World Social Report 2026: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2026/10/world-social-report-2026-press-release/
- United Nations, Sustainable Development, media advisory on the launch of the World Social Report 2026: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2026/10/media-advisory-wsr/
- UN DESA, World Social Report 2026: The New Economics of Social Inclusion; Making Transformations Work for All, full text: https://desapublications.un.org/file/23087/download
