Research on the Sustainable Development Goals
How many papers in the 400 tracked journals address each of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, per year since 2017 and per category. OpenAlex assigns a paper to each UN Sustainable Development Goal that its classifier scores above 0.4 from the paper's text; a paper can belong to several goals or to none. Also as Markdown.
Key findings#
- From 2023 to 2025, the goal the tracked journals' papers addressed most was SDG 9, Industry, innovation and infrastructure (26,588 papers), followed by SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth (18,787) and SDG 3 Good health and well-being (11,276).
- The fastest-growing goal is SDG 13, Climate action: 4,291 papers in 2025, against 1,285 in 2017.
- In economics, the goal addressed most is SDG 8, Decent work and economic growth (8,257 papers).
- In finance, the goal addressed most is SDG 8, Decent work and economic growth (3,936 papers).
- In management, the goal addressed most is SDG 8, Decent work and economic growth (3,996 papers).
By year#
| Goal | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDG 1: No poverty | 813 | 868 | 903 | 1,082 | 1,163 | 1,115 | 1,223 | 1,368 | 1,512 | 1,261 | 11,308 |
| SDG 2: Zero hunger | 499 | 532 | 562 | 603 | 697 | 717 | 802 | 911 | 1,034 | 860 | 7,217 |
| SDG 3: Good health and well-being | 1,567 | 1,870 | 1,986 | 2,584 | 3,503 | 3,475 | 3,438 | 3,603 | 4,235 | 3,676 | 29,937 |
| SDG 4: Quality education | 912 | 913 | 893 | 980 | 1,142 | 1,276 | 1,289 | 1,569 | 1,766 | 1,568 | 12,308 |
| SDG 5: Gender equality | 373 | 416 | 442 | 536 | 662 | 665 | 682 | 866 | 917 | 737 | 6,296 |
| SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation | 150 | 148 | 139 | 187 | 192 | 213 | 220 | 208 | 230 | 218 | 1,905 |
| SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy | 1,157 | 1,223 | 1,198 | 1,258 | 1,339 | 1,450 | 1,570 | 1,770 | 2,156 | 1,908 | 15,029 |
| SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth | 3,344 | 3,451 | 3,647 | 4,261 | 4,741 | 4,824 | 5,248 | 6,180 | 7,359 | 6,169 | 49,224 |
| SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure | 4,003 | 4,257 | 4,438 | 5,061 | 5,942 | 6,667 | 7,171 | 8,667 | 10,750 | 9,471 | 66,427 |
| SDG 10: Reduced inequalities | 1,691 | 1,802 | 1,921 | 2,270 | 2,524 | 2,635 | 2,687 | 3,355 | 4,081 | 3,597 | 26,563 |
| SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities | 1,452 | 1,658 | 1,726 | 1,901 | 2,235 | 2,232 | 2,369 | 2,785 | 3,258 | 3,154 | 22,770 |
| SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production | 551 | 597 | 633 | 706 | 906 | 1,180 | 1,239 | 1,428 | 1,659 | 1,488 | 10,387 |
| SDG 13: Climate action | 1,285 | 1,404 | 1,324 | 1,465 | 1,761 | 2,187 | 2,570 | 3,543 | 4,291 | 3,850 | 23,680 |
| SDG 14: Life below water | 38 | 44 | 36 | 52 | 43 | 61 | 41 | 52 | 62 | 57 | 486 |
| SDG 15: Life on land | 222 | 198 | 201 | 183 | 199 | 219 | 198 | 216 | 257 | 251 | 2,144 |
| SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions | 1,975 | 2,097 | 2,158 | 2,491 | 2,634 | 2,675 | 2,704 | 3,212 | 3,727 | 3,510 | 27,183 |
| SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals | 203 | 203 | 207 | 274 | 258 | 267 | 269 | 313 | 361 | 328 | 2,683 |
By category#
| Goal | Finance | Accounting | Economics | Health Economics and Policy | Management | Marketing | Information Systems | Tourism and Hospitality | Higher Education and Research | Operations Research | Statistics | AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDG 1: No poverty | 494 | 14 | 3,017 | 170 | 182 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 12 | 124 | 7 | 8 |
| SDG 2: Zero hunger | 210 | 1 | 1,437 | 65 | 149 | 41 | 36 | 6 | 4 | 309 | 5 | 484 |
| SDG 3: Good health and well-being | 220 | 10 | 1,760 | 3,204 | 421 | 123 | 318 | 241 | 66 | 993 | 278 | 3,642 |
| SDG 4: Quality education | 80 | 80 | 1,074 | 43 | 791 | 34 | 78 | 148 | 1,710 | 102 | 6 | 478 |
| SDG 5: Gender equality | 217 | 59 | 1,272 | 65 | 458 | 39 | 26 | 79 | 157 | 38 | 3 | 52 |
| SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation | 12 | 1 | 339 | 2 | 22 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 99 | 8 | 165 |
| SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy | 302 | 2 | 3,194 | 1 | 210 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 892 | 5 | 870 |
| SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth | 3,936 | 213 | 8,257 | 243 | 3,996 | 224 | 275 | 658 | 101 | 774 | 6 | 104 |
| SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure | 3,018 | 54 | 6,248 | 56 | 3,564 | 195 | 587 | 120 | 167 | 8,704 | 8 | 3,867 |
| SDG 10: Reduced inequalities | 882 | 85 | 5,585 | 699 | 782 | 81 | 132 | 229 | 586 | 525 | 31 | 506 |
| SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities | 318 | 6 | 2,009 | 36 | 295 | 66 | 92 | 252 | 10 | 3,958 | 34 | 1,336 |
| SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production | 277 | 19 | 1,051 | 11 | 544 | 196 | 93 | 59 | 2 | 1,844 | 0 | 230 |
| SDG 13: Climate action | 2,137 | 79 | 5,332 | 29 | 706 | 54 | 43 | 57 | 14 | 1,324 | 25 | 604 |
| SDG 14: Life below water | 2 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 17 | 3 | 59 |
| SDG 15: Life on land | 44 | 3 | 409 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 85 | 4 | 48 | 14 | 41 |
| SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions | 1,833 | 474 | 4,387 | 203 | 1,210 | 174 | 396 | 135 | 130 | 286 | 8 | 407 |
| SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals | 123 | 4 | 390 | 49 | 199 | 11 | 19 | 3 | 79 | 55 | 0 | 11 |
Cite this page
Scholar4AI. (2026). Research on the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/sdgs
@misc{scholar4ai-rankings-sdgs,
author = {{Scholar4AI}},
title = {Research on the Sustainable Development Goals},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/sdgs}},
urldate = {2026-10-31},
note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}