Compare
Trend lab: make your own progress assessment Choose any country and indicator, then see whether the pace since your chosen base year is fast enough to reach the green threshold by 2030. Change the base year and method to see how much the verdict depends on the choices behind it.
The lab CountryAfghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas, The Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil BRICS BRICSplus members Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo, Dem. Rep. Congo, Rep. Costa Rica Cote d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East and South Asia Eastern Europe and Central Asia Ecuador Egypt, Arab Rep. El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti High-income Countries Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Rep. Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Dem. Rep. Korea, Rep. Kuwait Kyrgyz Republic Lao PDR Latin America and the Caribbean Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Low-income Countries Lower-middle-income Countries Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Middle East and North Africa Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oceania OECD members Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovak Republic Slovenia Small Island Developing States Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sub-Saharan Africa Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Türkiye Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Upper-middle-income Countries Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, RB Vietnam World Yemen, Rep. Zambia Zimbabwe IndicatorPoverty headcount ratio at $3.00/day (%) Poverty headcount ratio at $4.20/day (%) Poverty rate after taxes and transfers (%) Prevalence of undernourishment (%) Prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years of age (%) Prevalence of wasting in children under 5 years of age (%) Minimum dietary diversity among children aged 6-23 months (%) Prevalence of obesity, BMI ≥ 30 (% of adult population) Human Trophic Level (best 2-3 worst) Cereal yield (tonnes per hectare of harvested land) Progress towards productive and sustainable agriculture (worst 1-5 best) Yield gap closure (% of potential yield) Exports of hazardous pesticides (tonnes per million population) Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births) Neonatal mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births) Incidence of tuberculosis (per 100,000 population) New HIV infections (per 1,000 uninfected population, all ages) Age-standardized death rate due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease in adults aged 30 to 70 years (%) Age-standardized death rate due to air pollution (per 100,000 population) Traffic deaths (per 100,000 population) Life expectancy at birth (years) Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19) Births attended by skilled health personnel (%) Surviving infants who received 2 WHO-recommended vaccines (%) Universal health coverage (UHC) index of service coverage (worst 0-100 best) Subjective well-being (average ladder score, worst 0-10 best) Gap in life expectancy at birth among regions (years) Gap in self-reported health status by income (percentage points) Daily smokers (% of population aged 15 and over) Participation rate in pre-primary organized learning (% of children aged 4 to 6) Net primary enrollment rate (%) Lower secondary completion rate (%) Literacy rate (% of population aged 15 to 24) Tertiary educational attainment (% of population aged 25 to 34) PISA score (worst 0-600 best) Variation in mathematics performance explained by socio-economic status (%) Underachievers in mathematics (% of 15-year-olds) Demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods (% of females aged 15 to 49) Ratio of female-to-male mean years of education received (%) Ratio of female-to-male labor force participation rate (%) Seats held by women in national parliament (%) Gender wage gap (% of male median wage) Population using at least basic drinking water services (%) Population using at least basic sanitation services (%) Freshwater withdrawal (% of available freshwater resources) Anthropogenic wastewater that receives treatment (%) Scarce water consumption embodied in imports (m³ H₂Oeq/capita) Population using safely managed water services (%) Population using safely managed sanitation services (%) Population with access to electricity (%) Population with access to clean fuels and technology for cooking (%) CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion per total electricity output (MtCO₂/TWh) Renewable energy share in total final energy consumption (%) Adjusted GDP growth index (worst 0-100 best) Victims of modern slavery (per 1,000 population) Adults with an account at a bank or other financial institution (% of population aged 15 or over) Unemployment rate (% of total labor force, ages 15+) Fundamental labor rights are effectively guaranteed (worst 0-1 best) Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) (% of population aged 15 to 24) Rural population with access to all-season roads (%) Population using the internet (%) Mobile broadband subscriptions (per 100 population) Logistics Performance Index: Infrastructure Score (worst 1-5 best) Score of top 3 universities in Times Higher Education (worst 0-100 best) Articles published in academic journals (per 1,000 population) Expenditure on research and development (% of GDP) Total patent applications by applicant's origin (per million population) Researchers (per 1,000 employed population) Female share of graduates from STEM fields at the tertiary level (%) E-government: Online Services Index (worst 0-1 best) Gini coefficient Palma ratio Elderly poverty rate (% of population aged 66 or over) Proportion of urban population living in slums (%) Annual mean concentration of PM2.5 (μg/m³) Access to improved water source, piped (% of urban population) Population with rent overburden (%) Urban population with access to points of interest within a 15min walk (%) Population with convenient access to public transport in cities (%) Municipal solid waste (kg/capita/day) Electronic waste that is not recollected (kg/capita) Production-based air pollution (DALYs per 1,000 population) Air pollution associated with imports (DALYs per 1,000 population) Production-based nitrogen emissions (kg/capita) Nitrogen emissions associated with imports (kg/capita) Exports of plastic waste (kg/capita) Non-recycled municipal solid waste (kg/capita/day) CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production (tCO₂/capita) GHG emissions embodied in imports (tCO₂equiv/capita) CO₂ emissions embodied in fossil fuel exports (tonnes/capita) The Net Effective Carbon Rate (EUR/tCO₂equiv) Mean area that is protected in marine sites important to biodiversity (%) Ocean Health Index: Clean Waters score (worst 0-100 best) Fish caught from overexploited or collapsed stocks (% of total catch) Fish caught by trawling or dredging (%) Fish caught that are then discarded (%) Marine biodiversity threats embodied in imports (per million population) Mean area that is protected in terrestrial sites important to biodiversity (%) Mean area that is protected in freshwater sites important to biodiversity (%) Red List Index of species survival (worst 0-1 best) Permanent deforestation (% of forest area, 3-year average) Imported deforestation (m²/capita) Homicides (per 100,000 population) Crime is effectively controlled (worst 0-1 best) Unsentenced detainees (% of prison population) Birth registrations with civil authority (% of children under age 5) Corruption Perceptions Index (worst 0-100 best) Children involved in child labor (%) Exports of major conventional weapons (TIV per 100,000 population) Press Freedom Index (worst 0-100 best) Access to and affordability of justice (worst 0-1 best) Timeliness of administrative proceedings (worst 0-1 best) Expropriations are lawful and adequately compensated (worst 0-1 best) Persons held in prison (per 100,000 population) Government spending on health and education (% of GDP) For high-income and all OECD DAC countries: International concessional public finance, including official development assistance (% of GNI) Other countries: Government revenue excluding grants (% of GDP) Corporate Tax Haven Score (best 0-100 worst) Financial Secrecy Score (best 0-100 worst) Shifted profits of multinationals (US$ billion) Statistical Performance Index (worst 0-100 best) Index of countries' support to UN-based multilateralism (worst 0-100 best) Base year2005 2010 2012 2015 2018 2020 Linear (SDSN) Compound growth
Canada: CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production (tCO₂/capita) Solid: actual values. Grey dashed: the straight path from the base year to the green threshold in 2030. Blue dashed: where the recent pace leads by 2030.
Your verdict (linear pace, SDSN rule) – Base – Latest – Green threshold 2 Achieved pace as share of needed – Projected value in 2030 – SDSN’s published arrow none published
Your verdict can differ from SDSN’s: SDSN works on rescaled scores capped at the bounds, carries data forward, and some indicators use a different period. Changing the base year or method shows how sensitive a ‘trend’ is to these choices.
Workshop questions With the defaults (Canada, CO₂ per person, base 2015, linear), what share of the needed pace has Canada achieved? Does your verdict match SDSN’s published arrow?
Warm-up, Using the lab
Change the base year from 2015 to 2005 and then to 2020. Does Canada’s verdict change? Which base year is most defensible for an SDG report, and why?
Core, Sensitivity
Switch from linear to compound growth for an indicator that is falling towards a low threshold (for example, CO₂ per person). Why can the two methods give different verdicts for the same history?
Core, Method
Check your reasoning The linear rule compares equal absolute steps per year; the compound rule compares constant percentage changes. A history of steady absolute declines becomes a rising percentage decline as the value falls, so the compound method can judge the same data more or less favourably. Neither is ‘right’: each assumes a different shape for the path to 2030.
Find an indicator where your verdict and SDSN’s published arrow disagree for a G7 country. Use the method notes to explain the difference.
Stretch, Comparison
Sources SDSN data are licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Values are shown as published, with attribution, for non-commercial teaching.