The state of the 'Prosperity' pillar by 2022: A partial ordering-based analysis of the sustainable development goals 7–11

Abstract

Based on the data provided in the 2022 Sustainable Development Report the so-called Prosperity pillar, i.e., the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7–11 is studied to elucidate the state of compliance as well as the trends in development for the 193 countries included in the report. To the extent that data for all five SDGs were available partial ordering methodology was applied to rank the countries according to their compliance as well as their trend toward compliance. The analyses took simultaneously data for all five SDGs into account to get an overall picture of the prosperity midway through the 15 years period for the 17 UN SDGs. It was disclosed that the ten top countries, i.e., presently best comply with the prosperity goals were Denmark > Austria = Finland = Sweden = Norway > Slovenia > Germany > Portugal > Japan > Iceland, respectively. In the case of the trends, the top ten countries were found to be Germany > Netherlands > Ecuador > Bhutan = Finland = Ireland = Slovak Republic > Czech Republic = Maldives = Malta, respectively. It was further disclosed that SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) appeared as the most important indicator for the ranking, whereas SDG 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure) appeared as the least important. A similar set of analyses was carried out for country regions. The top regions both in the case of states and trends were the OECD and the high-income countries whereas the bottom of the list was the low-income countries and Africa. The study unambiguously points to SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) as the main focus for the remaining period.