Assessing progress toward sustainable development goals at the subnational level: a case study of counties in Lithuania

The measurement of progress toward the United Nations 2030 Agenda should be treated as a multidimensional task. Subnational-level analysis plays a fundamental role in addressing national policies and informing the decision-makers about the weaknesses and potential strengths of different areas. This article assesses the level of the sustainable development in Lithuania through the spatial dimension of counties as research units. The methodology employed involves the adaptation of an existing sustainability assessment framework with the aim of identifying priority intervention areas in the context of Lithuania. Four sustainability dimensions were considered. The indicators were collected for the reference year of 2021. Relative to global sustainability, the highest level was reached by Vilnius county, whereas some counties lagged behind in one or more dimensions. Local decision-makers should consider the results for improving the performance of the other counties.