Global effects of progress towards Sustainable Development Goals on subjective well-being

As common pursuits of human society, subjective well-being (SWB) strongly depends on economic factors, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize promoting equilibrium between socio-economic development and environmental conservation. Therefore, trade-offs between narrowing existing progress differences across SDGs and improving SWB might exist, which could interfere with global policy-making for human development but remain unexplored. Here we investigate the changing effects of achieving balance across SDGs and other factors on SWB along the global sustainable development gradient. Results show that achieving balance across goals, rather than their average performance or per capita gross domestic product, is the primary factor supporting well-being in countries with poorly progressed SDGs. However, SWB in countries approaching fulfillment of sustainable development depends more on wealth rather than on achieving balance across SDGs. Given the trade-offs between economic development and poorly achieved goals (for example, SDG 13, Climate Action) in these countries, the strong dependence of well-being on wealth might impede the holistic achievement of the 17 goals. Overall, our study uncovers an essential but long-neglected subjective control factor in the global road map towards SDGs.