The??Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework??for societal progress and planetary health. However, it remains unclear??whether universal patterns exist in how nations pursue these goals and??whether key development areas are being overlooked. Here, we apply the??product space methodology, widely used in development economics, to??construct an ‘SDG space of nations’. The SDG space models the relative??performance and specialization patterns of 166 countries across 96 SDG??indicators from 2000 to 2022. Our SDG space reveals a polarized global??landscape, characterized by distinct groups of nations, each??specializing in specific development indicators. Furthermore, we find??that as countries improve their overall SDG scores, they tend to modify??their sustainable development trajectories, pursuing different??development objectives. Additionally, we identify orphaned SDG??indicators — areas where certain country groups remain??under-specialized. These patterns, and the SDG space more broadly,??provide a high-resolution tool to understand and evaluate the progress??and disparities of countries towards achieving the SDGs.?
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