Latvia ranks 13th in the world for sustainable development

According to a comprehensive analysis, Latvia is one of the world's leading countries in terms of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ahead not only of our Baltic neighbours - Lithuania and Estonia, but also the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the USA.

The latest report compiles and compares information on countries' progress with the 2015 UN General Assembly resolution ‘Transforming our World: an Agenda for Sustainable Development 2023’, or the so-called Agenda 2030. It sets 17 sustainable development goals and 169 sub-goals, which, if achieved, would reduce global poverty and make global development sustainable.

Latvia scores 80.99 on the Sustainable Development Index, up 0.29 points since the last year, to rank 13th among 167 countries included in the in-depth analysis. This is a very high ranking for Latvia, as the report is produced by experts from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), who use special methods to analyse the most recent data that is comparable across countries.

The SDSN experts estimate that Latvia has already achieved or progresses towards achieving 63.4% of the targets. In 15.5% of the targets Latvia's progress is limited, while the implementation of 21.1% of the targets has deteriorated.

The other two Baltic countries lag behind Latvia. Estonia ranks 15th with an index of 80.5, while Lithuania ranks 31st with an index of 78.1. Finland is a global leader (86.4), followed by Sweden (85.7) and Denmark (85.0) in the second and third place respectively, while the least successful countries are Chad (45.1), the Central African Republic (44.2) and South Sudan in 167th place with an index of 40.1.

Latvia demonstrates the most substantial progress under the UN Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities. Major achievements in this area include the progress with affordable housing, improving the energy efficiency of buildings and making public transport more accessible, especially for vulnerable groups.

In September last year, at the UN Summit in New York, Latvia reported on accelerating its progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and commitments in five areas: science and innovation, reducing inequalities, modernising governance, assisting less developed countries and supporting peace in Ukraine and the world.

Latvia is implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals by pursuing the objectives set out in the National Development Plan 2021-2027 (NDP2027) and sectoral policy guidelines and plans. An assessment of the progress of NAP2027 was included in the annual report of Prime Minister Evika Siliņa to the Saeima on 13 June this year. The Prime Minister emphasised that security and economic development are the Government's key priorities at the moment.