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Ensuring that no one is left behind: The role of disaggregated data

Solutions Session
Second World Summit for Social Development
Doha, Qatar

4 November 2025, 13:15 - 14:30 AST (in-person)

Overview

A key promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is that no one will be left behind. Fulfilling that promise requires more than just tracking the progress of national populations towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It also demands data that reflect the lived experience of groups that are at risk of being left behind, often referred to as “vulnerable populations”.

Vulnerability is often shaped by personal characteristics that have historically been associated with social or economic disadvantage. To better understand the challenges faced by vulnerable populations, the 2030 Agenda calls for increasing the availability of data disaggregated by income, gender (or sex), age, race, ethnicity, migratory (or migration) status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.1 Data disaggregated along these various dimensions are essential for revealing disparities, amplifying the voices of marginalized groups and holding governments accountable for achieving inclusive progress towards the SDGs.

While the value of disaggregated data is widely acknowledged, producing it systematically remains a challenge. Many data sources do not include the necessary breakdowns, and even when they do, the categories used may not be well harmonized and comparable within or between populations. A lack of comparability across data sources within the same population can lead to biased estimates because of a mismatch between the information contained in numerators and denominators of calculated rates or proportions. In addition, even when the available data are disaggregated in a consistent manner, the size of the observed samples may be too small to reliably measure group differences.

The objective of this Solutions Session is to review recent examples of success in increasing the availability of disaggregated data and to highlight the importance of such information for ensuring that no one is left behind.

 

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