The interlinkages between the SDG indicators and the differentiation between EU countries: It is (mainly) the economy!

Abstract

The United Nations adopted in September 2015 the 2030 Agenda, which contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. It covers the three traditional dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. A fourth institutional dimension (governance) has also been included. A global indicator framework has been developed to monitor the 2030 Agenda. The European Union (EU) has developed its own dashboard involving 100 indicators, structured along the SDGs and adapted to the EU context and policies. Our study is based on the EU's dashboard indicators. Our objective is to measure interlinkages between these indicators, knowing that the United Nations considered from the start that taking into account these interlinkages and the integrated nature of the SDGs was a prerequisite to achieve these goals. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) used to measure the correlation between indicators distinguishes three main groups of economic and social indicators: income/poverty; health; education/employment. It also puts in evidence a fourth category regarding governance. In contrast, the indicators relating to the environment in a broad sense are much more heterogeneous. On the basis of the Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) which is also conducted to complement the PCA, two groups of countries can be identified within the EU. On the one hand, the countries of Western and Northern Europe, and on the other, the countries of East and Southern Europe. The segmentation between EU countries is directly related to their economic development level.