Achieving sustainability has become critical for global survival and averting ecological collapse, emerging as a worldwide priority that extends beyond national concerns to sub-national levels, particularly urban regions. Since these areas are centers of innovation and socioeconomic concentration, urban sustainability is essential to sustainable development. This study is unique because it estimates the sustainability index rooted in the SDG framework for Pakistan, its provinces, and urban divisions using the same year of reference and data sources. Employing the triple-bottom approach, it computes indices for economic, social and environmental sustainability. The result revealed that the overall sustainability score for Pakistan is 53.5 per cent using arithmetic aggregation and 41.7 per cent using geometric aggregation, showing a 22 per cent decline in signalling variability across the three sub-indices. The scores indicate that Pakistan’s economic progress is achieved at the expense of environmental sustainability, reflected by the low environmental index score at each level. At provincial levels, Sindh stands out among provinces in scoring overall sustainability under both aggregation strategies, followed by Punjab and KPK, while Balochistan is far behind in overall sustainability. The divisional results reveal that Punjab accounts for 80 per cent of the top-performing divisions, with the remaining 20 per cent divided evenly between KPK and Sindh. However, it is worth mentioning that these divisions are only halfway to meeting the required sustainability goals and targets in absolute terms. In a nutshell, more integrated policies are needed to address challenges in social and environmental dimensions as well, ensuring that economic progress translates into long-term sustainable growth.
