The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 shows that since their adoption in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have delivered results at scale—expanding access to clean water, electricity, health care and digital connectivity for billions of people. With less than five years remaining to achieve the Goals, the report provides a candid assessment of progress: meaningful gains have been made across the SDGs, but they remain uneven and insufficient in the face of serious headwinds— from escalating conflicts, slowing global economic growth, climate change, rising debt burdens and declining official development assistance. Without a decisive push to rapidly scale up proven…

The World Youth Report on Youth Mental Health and Well-being examines how youth mental health and well-being are shaped by six social determinants, i.e. education, employment, family dynamics, poverty, technology, and societal attitudes. The Report highlights how inequalities in these areas create disparities in mental health outcomes, noting that stigma, discrimination, and unequal access to opportunities and care compound risks for young people. 

Drawing on extensive literature reviews, expert consultations, youth surveys, and real-life youth testimonies, the Report stresses cross-sectoral action, inclusive policies, and youth-led initiatives. Ultimately, it calls for…

Demographic Yearbook 2024 is the 75th issue in a series published since 1948. Through the cooperation with the National Statistical Offices, official demographic statistics are compiled in the Yearbook, as available, for more than 230 countries and areas of the world up to the reference year 2024. This edition of the Yearbook contains chapters on the population size and distribution, the population of capital cities, fertility, foetal mortality, infant and maternal mortality, general mortality, nuptiality and divorce.

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary in 2025, this report by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) traces the evolution of sustainable development within the UN system. It highlights the organization’s role in shaping both the understanding and the practical application of sustainable development. 

The UN DESA Annual Highlights report is a tool to communicate the contributions of the Department to the realization of internationally agreed development goals and shared social, economic, and environmental aspirations. It showcases the Department’s role in gauging trends, building capacities, and shaping solutions. UN DESA Highlights 2025 covers activities over the period of the 79th Session of the General Assembly (September 2024 – August 2025) and reflects the Department’s response to the set priorities and expressed needs of Member States. Seven (7) thematic chapters showcase how UN DESA put its expertise to the task of supporting Member State efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda…

The sixth edition of the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples focuses on Climate Crisis. It focuses on the vital role of Indigenous peoples in addressing the impacts of climate change. Although Indigenous Peoples account for only around 5 per cent of the world’s population, they effectively manage and protect an estimated 80 per cent of the Earth’s biodiversity and about 40 per cent of protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes. Since Indigenous Peoples first came to the United Nations, they have emphasized the fundamental importance of their relationship with their lands, territories and resources, which hold a deep cultural and spiritual significance within their societies…

Economic insecurity, staggering levels of inequality, declining social trust and social fragmentation are destabilizing societies worldwide. The World Social Report 2025, reveals trends that are threatening communities and demand immediate, decisive policy action. The report calls for a new policy consensus anchored in three principles—equity, economic security for all, and solidarity—that are essential to strengthen the three dimensions of sustainable development.

The report is the first to be co-produced with the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). This collaboration brings new research insights into the report,…

The 2022 Energy Statistics Yearbook is the sixty-sixth issue in a series of annual compilations of internationally comparable statistics summarizing world energy trends, which commenced under the title World Energy Supplies in Selected Years, 1929-1950.

Annual data for more than 200 countries and areas for the period 2019 to 2022 are presented on production, trade and consumption of energy for solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels, electricity, and heat. Per capita consumption series are also provided for all energy products.

Graphs are included to illustrate historic trends and/or changes in composition of production and/or consumption of major energy products.…

The 2022 Energy Balances publication presents energy data for over 200 countries and areas in a format which shows the overall picture of the yearly production, trade, transformation and consumption of energy products utilized in each country or area shown, for the years 2021 and 2022. Such a format, presented in a common energy unit, the Terajoule, is useful in assessing and analysing supply and consumption patterns across both products and countries in detail on an internationally comparable basis.

It is the eleventh issue of Energy Balances as a stand-alone publication, replacing the previous series of Energy Balances and Electricity Profiles. The…

The 2022 Electricity Profiles publication provides an overall picture of the electricity sector of over 200 countries and areas on an internationally comparable basis, for the years 2017-2022. It displays detailed information on production, trade and consumption of electricity, on net installed capacity and thermal power plant inputs and efficiency for each of these countries and areas.

This is the eleventh issue of Electricity Profiles as a stand-alone publication, replacing the previous series of Energy Balances and Electricity Profiles.

The publication is available in printed and electronic (PDF format) versions.