Tracking worldwide interest in sustainable development goals using culturomics

The lack of robust and timely data continues to be a limiting factor in the capacity to monitor progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developing indicators based on big data has been proposed as a suitable approach to overcome this challenge but such developments have largely focused on earth observation data. Digital data representing aspects of human behaviour, such as information-seeking behaviour, hold great potential to monitor interest and engagement with sustainability topics. Using worldwide data from online searches carried out through Google’s search engine, we explore how interest in the seventeen SDGs has changed over time since the goals were first proposed and assess how the COVID-19 pandemic affected these dynamics. Our results suggest a growing trend for searches related to the SDGs since they came into place in 2016. Interest was mostly directed at social and economic-related goals in the first years, but increasing interest in environmental goals has greatly increased in the last years. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in internet searches for the SDGS, but interest has recovered since then and continues to grow. Searches for the different SDGs are also more frequently connected following the pandemic, possibly indicating a growing awareness of the inter-related nature of sustainability goals. While further progress is needed to captivate broader engagement with the SDGs, our analysis suggests some progress has been achieved and highlights the potential of digital data to improve our understanding of public interest and engagement with sustainability topics. To materialize this potential, we outline specific areas where digital data can enhance capacity to monitor and shape sustainability progress.Author summary: Monitoring progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is essential to ensure they are achieved by the 2030 deadline. However, data available for this purpose is scarce and often not available in near real-time which prevents prompt action. Digital big data have been proposed as a potentially source of useful and timely information for monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, but development of suitable indicators and validation of their application has lagged. We propose that the volume of internet searches can be used as an indicator for monitoring engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals. Using data from internet searches carried out through Google’s Search Engine, we show that interest in the different Sustainable Development Goals has continued to increase since they were officially announced, and despite a period of lower interest caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We also suggest that interest in the different goals has become more connected which can indicate broader awareness of the interconnected nature of sustainability goals. Our study is a demonstration of how digital big data can be used to develop new indicators of progress towards broader engagement with sustainable development goals and we highlight opportunities for the further development of digital indicators.