A Principal Component Analysis for the Social Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Framework

Abstract

Sustainable development is a theoretical construct with more and more supporters in the last three decades, be it in the media, the political system, researchers or the public policy environment. The Sustainable Development Goals generally propose an approach to a specific sector through numerous indicators, with interferences often existing between objectives and indicators. An analysis focused on a certain pattern of indicators (e.g. economic, social, environmental), for a critical destination can better channel efforts to achieve it starting from the goal, rather than from the manner of intervention or the path to be followed, and eliminating as much as possible the elements of interference with an ambiguous, multi-univocal character. Therefore, in addition to clarifying the conceptual framework, the study methodologically attempts to approach the Sustainable Development Goals of a social nature based on the Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Thus, based on a multivariate analysis, mainly SDGs indicators 4, 5, 10 and 17 are analyzed, starting from Eurostat data, for the period 2012-2025. The use of a large number of variables for the European Union countries (EU27) for each target and for the social field as a whole, against the background of the complexity of the indicators and the different units of measurement for each of them, revealed the choice of the Principal Components Analysis methodology as appropriate. The results show the strengths and weaknesses of the social SDGs starting from the PCA analysis. The paper, through the original systematization proposed, can be considered a landmark in the analysis of the social SDGs in order to better identify the gaps that need to be corrected in the analysis of the SDGs.