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First global baseline report measures how sport, physical education and physical activity contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Commonwealth-led study covering 210 countries highlights leaders such as Jamaica, Singapore and Australia
Report warns that physical inactivity remains widespread and women and girls face persistent inequalities
Fewer than a third of national sport policies globally are aligned with the SDGs, pointing to major untapped potential
Sport’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals remains under-measured despite growing global impact, Commonwealth report finds
The Commonwealth has launched the first global baseline report to assess how sport, physical education and physical activity contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting both progress across member states and major gaps in data and policy alignment.
Launched at Canada House in London, the Global Sport and Sustainable Development Goals Baseline and Initial Impact Report draws on data from 210 countries and establishes a shared framework to measure the role of sport in sustainable development across the Commonwealth’s 56 member countries and beyond.
The work has been developed with input from more than 150 government, sport and civil society partners — including UNESCO, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee — and is intended as a practical policy tool for governments, development agencies and sports organisations.
The report finds that several Commonwealth countries are performing strongly in specific SDG areas. Jamaica ranks highest globally and across the Commonwealth for advancing gender equality through sport (SDG 5), and also leads worldwide on education (SDG 4), driven by consistent policy implementation, specialist physical education teachers across school levels, and regular programme monitoring.
Singapore ranks highest across the Commonwealth for sport’s contribution to health, wellbeing and sustainable cities (SDGs 3 and 11), while Australia leads on strengthening institutions, partnerships and protecting the integrity of sport (SDGs 16 and 17).
Other notable findings include Malaysia topping the Commonwealth rankings for promoting peaceful, inclusive and equitable societies through sport (SDG 10), and Malta ranking highest for sport’s contribution to economic growth and employment, based on European data alone.
Despite these successes, the report underlines serious global challenges. Physical inactivity remains widespread, with over 31 per cent of adults and 82.8 per cent of adolescents worldwide insufficiently active. Women and girls are consistently less active than men and boys. Physical inactivity is now the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, contributing to an estimated 3.2 million premature deaths each year.
The study warns that, based on projections cited from the World Health Organization, adult inactivity could rise to 35 per cent by 2030 without stronger intervention.
One of the report’s central findings is the weak alignment between national sport policies and the SDGs. Globally, just under a third (31.98 per cent) of national sport policies intentionally align with the SDGs, pointing to what the authors describe as “untapped potential” for sport to accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda.
Speaking at the launch, the Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General, Dr Arjoon Suddhoo, said: “Sport is a powerful force for sustainable development, yet its impact is too often undermeasured and undervalued. This report allows us to understand where sport is making a difference, where gaps remain, and how its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals can be maximised.”
While the report introduces a new measurement framework covering 60 indicators across seven domains, including health, education, economic growth, gender empowerment and governance, it acknowledges that a lack of consistent data prevents definitive conclusions about sport’s direct impact on achieving SDG targets.
In several domains, large portions of national data had to be imputed due to gaps in reporting. For example, only 36 countries published data on system strengthening and sport integrity, while environmental sustainability in sport lacked any comparable global dataset.
The report stresses that this does not mean sport lacks impact, but rather that “the nature and scale of that impact cannot currently be appropriately measured”.