Analysis of the impact of success on three dimensions of sustainability in 173 countries

Abstract

The United Nations have announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, which are indivisible and integrated, and which balance the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This indicates that the performance of successful nations is generally good across many sustainability indicators. Our results, based on multi-criteria and statistical analysis across 173 countries, suggest an interconnection between a country’s sustainability 12 indicators and success. This article focuses on the Country Success and Sustainability (CSS) Maps and Models of the World, which show that improvements in environmental, social, and economic sustainability indicators lead to improvements in the country's success, and vice versa. The CSS Models explain 98.2% of national success and 80.8% of the three dimensions of average sustainability dispersions. When a nation’s success increases by 1%, the 12 indicators of the three dimensions of sustainability improve by 0.85% on average. The human development index and GDP per capita were the success variables with the most substantial impact on 12 sustainability indicators in 173 countries. Calculations made using equal and different weights of 17 criteria show a deviation of 5.34% for the priorities of these 173 countries.