Reports & Indexes★ Must Know

India Climbs to 94th in 2026 UN SDG Index — Its Highest-Ever Rank

By TestNeeti Editorial TeamPublished Sunday, 28 June 2026 2 min readSource: Down To EarthArticle 2 of 6

India has secured its highest-ever position in the global UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index, climbing to 94th among 167 countries in the 2026 edition, according to the Sustainable Development Report 2026 released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). With an overall SDG score of 68.3 out of 100, India improved from 99th place in 2025, and has risen 18 places since 2015 (from 112th) — among the world's biggest movers, alongside China (+14). The report, presented around the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, cautioned that global SDG progress remains off track, with only a small share of targets projected to be met by 2030, and flagged hunger, malnutrition and health as persistent challenges for India.

Key Facts & Details

9 points

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India ranked 94th of 167 countries in the 2026 UN SDG Index — its highest-ever position.
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India's overall SDG score is 68.3 out of 100, up from 99th place in 2025.
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Since 2015, India has climbed 18 places (from 112th), among the biggest improvers globally.
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The ranking comes from the Sustainable Development Report 2026 by the UN SDSN (Sustainable Development Solutions Network).
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The report warns global SDG progress is off track, with only a fraction of the 17 SDGs' targets on course for 2030.
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Hunger, malnutrition and health remain India's weakest-performing goals.

Deep Dive

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East and South Asia have outperformed all other regions in SDG progress since 2015, the report noted.
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The SDG Index scores countries 0-100 on progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.
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The findings were highlighted around the Hamburg Sustainability Conference in Germany.

Exam Focus

What is India's rank and score in the 2026 UN SDG Index, and which body publishes the Sustainable Development Report?

Exam Relevance & Angle

Global indices — their publisher, India's rank, total countries and India's score — are among the most repeated current-affairs MCQs across banking, SSC and UPSC exams. India's jump to 94th in the SDG Index is a headline 'India's rank' fact, and the underlying SDGs/2030 Agenda framework is core UPSC and GA material.

Target Exams

SBI POSBI ClerkIBPS POIBPS ClerkIBPS RRB OfficerIBPS RRB AssistantRBI Grade BRBI AssistantNABARD Grade ASSC CGLSSC CHSLRRB NTPCLIC AAONIACL AOUPSC CSEState PCS

Background & Context

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, covering poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, climate and more. The Sustainable Development Report and its SDG Index — produced annually by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) — score and rank countries on their overall progress toward these goals on a 0-100 scale, where the score approximates the percentage of SDG achievement. The Index is distinct from government trackers like NITI Aayog's domestic SDG India Index; the SDSN ranking allows cross-country comparison and is widely cited as a measure of a nation's development trajectory.