A Study of the UN SDG Report 2025

Have you ever wondered why wars keep breaking out all over the world in the last 3-4 years? The answer lies hidden in plain sight. A world post-COVID is a recipe for disaster, and nothing explains this better than the UN SDG Report of 2025.

The following article captures the key points of this report and focuses on SDGs 1-5 as some of the critical make-or-break factors for a post-COVID world. As you go through this article, you will see a world descending into conflict and understand—using key parameters like poverty, health, hunger, water, and more—how these factors are exacerbating these conflicts.

Overall SDG Progress

At the very onset, this year’s SDG Report finds that the world is on track to meet just 35% of its SDG targets, with half moving too slowly and—much more alarmingly—18% actually going in reverse.

Key Wins

- More than half the global population now enjoys social security—an estimate up by 10% from a decade ago.

- Women hold 27% of parliamentary seats, which is up from 22%.

- Internet activity has increased by a whopping 70%.

- New HIV infections are down by 40% since 2010.

- 92% of the world’s population has access to electricity.

Key Challenges

- Over 800 million people remain trapped in extreme poverty.

- 2024 was the warmest year on record, with the planet breaching the threshold of 1.5 degrees of temperature rise.

- Over 120 million people have been displaced due to conflict—a number which is double what it was in 2015.

- Debt servicing costs in low- and middle-income countries are at an all-time high of 1.4 trillion USD.

- One in twelve people still experiences hunger.

- The financing gap is as high as 4 trillion USD for development projects.

- The abrupt stopping of US AID has made matters much worse.

Individual SDG Analysis

SDG 1: Poverty

- 1 in 10 people still live in extreme poverty, with 8.9% projected to remain in this category by 2030 at current rates.

- 3.8 billion people remain uncovered by any kind of social protection.

- In 2025, 808 million people are living in extreme poverty—a number which was 677 million in previous estimates. This is partly because the World Bank has raised the poverty line from 2.15 USD to 3 USD.

- Today, only one in five countries is on track to achieving the goal of halving their poverty rate by 2030.

- While 66% of the world believes they enjoy secure tenure rights to land, only 43% can furnish official documents—meaning 1.4 billion adults are deprived from formal land markets and mortgage-based finance.

- Among them, only 24% of women hold legal land documents, making only 3 in 10 of all document holders women.

SDG 2: Hunger

- 8.2% of the world faces hunger, and 28% are moderately to severely food insecure.

- The share of countries with high food prices declined from 60% to 50% from 2022 to 2023 but is still more than 3 times the pre-pandemic norms.

- Stunting among children aged 5 or less declined from 26.4% to 23.2% between 2012 and 2024, but recent data shows a reversal of this trend.

- Stunting is higher among boys (24.4%) than girls (21.9%).

- Anemia affects 30.7% of women, up from 27.6% in 2012, and remains as high as 35.5% in pregnant women.

- Global public expenditure on agriculture reached a record high of 701 billion USD in 2023 but is only 1.85% of global public expenditure.

SDG 3: Health

- The global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) dropped from 228 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 197 in 2023 but is still triple the target of 70 for 2030.

- Disparities are concerning, with low-income countries at 346 deaths per 100,000 and high-income ones at just 10.

- Global under-5 mortality ratio fell to 37 per 1,000 live births in 2023 from 44 in 2015, and neonatal mortality dropped 12% in the same period.

- Tuberculosis has returned as the single largest cause of death from an infectious agent in 2023, with 87% of cases coming from just 30 countries.

- Suicide rates have fallen from 12.9 to 9.2 per 100,000 people globally but have increased by 33% in North America, 25% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 10% in Southeast Asia.

- A global shortage of 14.7 million health workers persists (down from 15.4 million in 2020), but in high-income countries, there is one health worker per 64 people, while in low-income

countries, it is one per 621 people.

SDG 4: Education

- 272 million children and youth remain out of school in 2023, but girls exceed enrollment by 2-3 percentage points in every category.

- Upper secondary completion rate has declined from 1.3% (2010-15) to 0.8% (2015-24), and the out-of-school population has increased by 3% since 2015.

- 36% of school-aged children are out of school in low-income countries, compared to only 3% in high-income countries.

- The percentage of students achieving minimum proficiency at the end of lower secondary education declined between 2018-22 by 15% in math and 10% in reading.

- Only one-third of countries have made pre-primary education compulsory, and only half provide legal guarantees for at least one year of pre-primary education.

- Youth literacy has grown from 91% in 2014 to 93% in 2024, and adult literacy from 85% to 88% in the same period.

- Globally, over 20% of primary schools lack access to electricity, drinking water, and sanitation.

SDG 5: Gender

- Only 38 countries (29%) have established 18 as the minimum age for getting married, and nearly one in 5 young women (19%) were first married or in a union before 18.

- In managerial positions, progress from 2015 to 2023 was just 2.4%, reaching 30%, and it will take 100 years at this rate to achieve parity.

- This has in fact declined in Central and South Asia from 15.1% to 11.6% and by 2.3% in Southeast Asia.

- Only 75.4% of women can refuse sex, and 75% can make health care decisions.

Conclusion

The UN SDG Report 2025 paints a stark picture of a post-COVID world teetering on the edge, where stalled or reversing progress on key goals like poverty eradication, hunger reduction, health equity, education access, and gender equality is fueling global instability. The pandemic's lingering effects—exacerbated by economic disruptions, halted aid, record debt, and climate extremes—have widened inequalities and displaced millions, creating fertile ground for conflicts. Poverty traps billions without social safety nets, hunger weakens populations and economies, health worker shortages and rising suicides strain societies, educational setbacks perpetuate cycles of disadvantage, and gender disparities limit half the world's potential. These interconnected failures not only hinder sustainable development but directly contribute to the surge in wars, as resource scarcity, displacement, and desperation ignite tensions between nations and communities. To avert further descent into chaos, urgent global action is needed: bridging the 4 trillion USD financing gap, restoring aid flows, and prioritizing equitable recovery to rebuild a more resilient, peaceful world. Without this, the post-COVID era risks becoming defined not by recovery, but by endless conflict.