Giving Compass' Take:

• An interactive tool called "America's Goals Report Card" analyzes how each state is ranking for achieving seven of the Sustainable Development Goals.

• What are some underlying reasons that U.S. states in different regions have high rankings in goals but are unsuccessful in others?  

• Read about the progress of U.S. cities and the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call on the nations of the world to meet grand challenges on poverty, education, health, and the environment.

The “America’s Goals Report Card” scores the states on seven SDGs, including issues like worker rights and healthcare. In most cases, the U.S. ranks poorly overall, though some individual states are approaching international standards.

For example, the U.S. remains the only advanced nation in the world that does not guarantee workers paid family leave. But several states do have their own leave policies, including Oregon and Rhode Island,  New York, Washington, Arkansas and New Jersey.

The interactive America Goals map lets you look results for each state, and ranks everywhere on the good-to-poor color scheme. States in the south more often than not appear in red (a poor ranking) while states on the northeast and northwest are most likely to be green (an okay ranking).

22% of Americans say they forgo visiting a doctor because of healthcare costs–that’s the second highest rate among advanced countries. But several states like Hawaii, with a 7.4% rate on the same measure, are nearer the international norm. Southern states like Texas (18%) and Mississippi (19%) are nearer the national rate.

Read the full article on U.S. states meeting the SDGs by Ben Schiller at Fast Company.