Call for Experts. Click here
Get In Touch

Sustainable Development Goals for United States

Back to SDG overview
Jump to section:
Child well-being Child-related indicators Population overview

Child well-being

UNICEF’S commitment to data for children is guided by the fact that the SDGs impact every aspect of a child’s well-being. Our work is structured around 5 overarching areas of well-being for every child which are grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This human rights-based approach pursues a vision of realizing the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and responds to the call to “leave no child behind”, so that the rights of every child, everywhere, will be fulfilled.

Share of countries assessed on progress towards global SDG targets, averaged across indicators grouped into five dimensions of children’s rights

Survive+thrive Survive+thrive

Learning Learning

Protection Protection

Environment Environment

Fair chance Fair chance

  • No data
  • Insufficient trend data
  • Acceleration needed
  • On track
  • Target met

Child-related SDG indicators

The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Global Goals addressing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Attached to the Goals are 169 concrete targets measured by 232 specific indicators.

To chart and track how ambitious and how realistic country targets are UNICEF created quantifiable country-level benchmarks for child-related indicators for which data are available to measure and monitor numerous child rights on a common scale.

Provided below is a stocktaking of the country’s performance against the 45 child-related SDG indicators, grouping the results into five areas of child well-being to provide an overall assessment of how children are faring. The countries are assessed using global and national targets. The rankings provide valuable insights into both historic progress – recognizing the results delivered by countries in the recent past – as well as how much additional effort might be required to achieve the child-related SDG targets. This approach provides a framework to assess ambition as well as the scale of action needed to realize it.

Value
Latest year
with data
Historic progress
Effort needed to meet the 2030 target
Survive+thrive Survive+thrive
2.2.1 Prevalence of stunting among children under 5 (%)
4
2022
Very weak
Target met
2.2.2a Prevalence of wasting among children under 5 (%)
0
2018
Average
Target met
2.2.2a Prevalence of overweight among children under 5 (%)
8
2022
Weak
Very high effort
3.b.1 Proportion of surviving infants receiving measles-containing-vaccine first-dose (MCV1) (%)
92
2022
Average
Target met
3.b.1 Proportion of surviving infants receiving 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) (%)
94
2022
Average
Target met
3.1.1 Maternal mortality ratio (deaths per 100,000 live births)
21
2020
Weak
Very high effort
3.1.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel (%)
99
2020
Average
Target met
3.2.1 Under-five mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births)
6
2021
Very weak
Target met
3.2.2 Neonatal mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births)
3
2021
Weak
Target met
3.3.1 (HIV Incidence) – New HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population [Children <15]
–
–
No data
No data
3.3.1 (HIV Incidence) – New HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population [Adolescents 15-19]
–
–
No data
No data
3.7.2 Adolescent birth rate per 1,000 women
15
2020
Very strong
Target met
3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services (index)
86
2021
Weak
High effort
5.6.1 Proportion of women aged 15–49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding reproductive health care (%)
–
–
No data
No data
Learning Learning
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
–
–
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
–
–
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
96
2016
Strong
No target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
77
2019
Average
No target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
81
2018
Average
High effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
73
2018
Weak
Very high effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in primary education (%)
100
2020
Strong
No target
4.1.2 Completion rate in lower secondary education (%)
99
2020
Strong
No target
4.1.2 Completion rate in upper secondary education (%)
93
2020
Average
High effort
4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 36-59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex (%)
–
–
No data
No data
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) (%)
91
2020
Average
Average effort
Protection Protection
5.2.1 Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner (%)
6
2018
No trend data available
No trend data available
5.3.1 Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 18 (%)
–
–
No data
No data
5.3.2 Proportion of girls and women aged 15-49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation (%)
–
–
No data
No data
8.7.1 Proportion of children aged 5-17 years engaged in child labour (%)
–
–
No data
No data
16.2.1 Proportion of children 1-14 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month (%)
–
–
No data
No data
16.2.3 Proportion of young women aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18 (%)
–
–
No data
No data
16.2.3 Proportion of young men aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18 (%)
–
–
No data
No data
16.9.1 Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority (%)
100
2021
No trend data available
Target met
Environment Environment
1.4.1.a Proportion of the population using basic drinking water services (%)
100
2022
Very strong
Target met
1.4.1.b Proportion of the population using basic sanitation services (%)
100
2022
Weak
Target met
6.1.1 Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services (%)
97
2022
Strong
Very high effort
6.2.1.a Proportion of population using safely managed sanitation services (%)
97
2022
Weak
High effort
6.2.1.b Proportion of population with a basic handwashing facility with soap and water available on premises (%)
–
–
No data
No data
6.2.1.c Proportion of population practising open defecation (%)
0
2022
Average
Target met
Poverty Poverty
1.1.1 Children living in households in extreme poverty (%)
–
–
No data
No data
1.2.1 Children living below the national poverty line (%)
–
–
No data
No data
1.2.1 Proportion of children living below the national poverty line, both sexes (%), Covid projections
–
–
No data
No data
1.2.2 Children living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions (%)
–
–
No data
No data
1.3.1 Proportion of child population covered by social protection floors/systems (%)
100
2018
No trend data available
Target met
Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality in employment and economic benefits
80
2022
No trend data available
No trend data available

Historic progress

  • Very weak
  • Weak
  • Average
  • Strong
  • Very strong
  • No trend data available
  • No data

Effort needed to hit relative target

  • Target met
  • Very low effort
  • Low effort
  • Average effort
  • High effort
  • Very high effort
  • Above recorded history
  • No trend data available
  • No data
  • No target

Note: This dashboard uses internationally comparable data from the global databases held on behalf of the international community by UNICEF and other United Nations agencies. While UNICEF is committed to the localization of SDG targets, global rather than national targets are used to gauge progress on the SDG indicators.  To read more about how the trajectories towards the global targets are assessed please read the methodology note.

Progress for every child

Heatmaps of historical performance and eort required to meet its SDG targets by 2030.

Download SDG country brief for United States

Population overview

Understanding of a country’s population levels, trends and projections constitutes an essential ingredient in strategic planning, policy development and program implementation for addressing global challenges and emerging issues.

Total population: 343,477,335 (2023 projections)

Age (yrs)
Male
Female
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89
90-94
95-99
100+
9,535,486
9,108,195
10,425,999
9,902,748
11,042,088
10,419,080
11,651,852
10,957,887
11,561,137
10,829,282
11,757,512
10,968,369
12,664,681
11,842,302
12,187,273
11,431,949
11,713,143
11,092,942
10,562,099
10,085,617
10,694,946
10,341,409
10,637,515
10,501,153
10,765,749
10,922,576
9,338,450
10,006,551
7,326,113
8,219,176
5,296,221
6,221,752
3,033,322
4,038,110
1,597,059
2,422,726
639,210
1,179,932
143,389
345,706
15,467
51,166
10
7.5
5
2.5
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
Share of total population (%)

Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects 2019

Related SDG resources

How can we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for and with children

In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a safer, cleaner and more prosperous world by 2030. Now it’s up to all of us to join forces to address the most pressing global challenges and turn goals into action.

To accelerate progress towards the SDGs for every child, UNICEF embraces a “3As” approach: raising awareness, taking action and holding decision makers accountable for progress

Read more
Linking child rights and the SDGs

The SDGs are universal in scope, and their call to leave no one behind puts the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people – including children – at the top of the agenda.

Read more
More on UNICEF and the SDGs

UNICEF works with governments, partners and other UN agencies to help countries ensure the goals deliver results for and with every child – now and for generations to come.

Read more
United Nations Secretariat for the SDGs (UN-DESA)

The Division for Sustainable Development Goals at UN-DESA acts as the Secretariat for the SDGs, providing substantive support and capacity-building for the goals and their related thematic issues, including water, energy, climate, and more.

Read more