-
Tool
Exploring National Doughnuts
An interactive visualisation (with video and slides) to explore Doughnuts for nearly 150 countries since the early 1990s
-
Tool
Downscaling the Doughnut: Data Portraits in action
Examples of Doughnut Data Portraits (or City Portraits) created by local governments, communities, and/or researchers.
-
Theme
Cities & Regions
Local and regional governments working with Doughnut Economics in their policies, strategies, processes and ways of thinking
-
Theme
Communities & Art
Cultivating grassroots agency and power with creative and accessible methods, peer-learning and global solidarity
-
Theme
Research & Academia
Deepening the concepts and applications of Doughnut Economics through scholarly collaboration.
-
Theme
Business & Enterprise
Transforming the deep design of business to enable regenerative and distributive action.
-
Theme
Schools & Education
Collaborating with educators and learners to create transformative education for regenerative futures.
What is the Doughnut?
An overview of the core concept at the heart of Doughnut Economics, including how it has evolved since 2012 and interactive visualisations
What is the Doughnut?
The Doughnut of Social and Planetary Boundaries (the Doughnut) offers a visual monitor of progress towards the goal of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet.
At its conceptual core, the Doughnut consists of two concentric rings: a social foundation, to ensure that no one is left falling short on life’s essentials, and an ecological ceiling, to ensure that humanity does not destabilise the life-supporting systems that sustain all life on Earth.
Between these two sets of boundaries lies a doughnut-shaped space that is both ecologically safe and socially just: a space in which humanity can thrive.
The Doughnut is a core concept of Doughnut Economics. Scroll down to read about how the Doughnut has evolved since it was first created by Kate Raworth in 2012, and to explore interactive results of the latest quantitative assessment published in 2025.
The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries (Raworth, 2025)
The Evolving Doughnut
This report by Kate Raworth sets out where inspiration for the framework came from, and how and why it has evolved over its first three iterations. Following this, the paper presents tables showing the dimensions, indicators and data used for each of those three versions. The latest Doughnut diagrams are also available to download.
Doughnut Data Explorer
Billions of people are falling short of meeting their most essential needs, while humanity is collectively overshooting multiple planetary boundaries. Explore global performance with respect to the Doughnut of Social and Planetary Boundaries over the 2000-2022 period using data from our 2025 study, Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance, published in Nature.
Hover or tap on individual wedges in the interactive Doughnut below to explore details on the indicator selected. Use the slider or press 'Play' to see how the World's social shortfall and ecological overshoot change over time.
Red wedges quantify shortfall across 12 essential social priorities, and overshoot across 9 planetary boundaries. Dark green circles show the social foundation and the ecological ceiling, which collectively define the minimum conditions of an ecologically safe and socially just space for humanity. Grey wedges show indicators with missing data.
Expand the two sections below to read more about the Doughnut's social foundation and ecological ceiling, including descriptions and data sources for each indicator, and/or keep scrolling to explore further perspectives on the Doughnut.
The Doughnut's social foundation is shown as its inner ring, below which lies critical human deprivation. It consists of 12 essential dimensions derived from the social priorities agreed upon by the world's governments in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - such as food, health, education, political voice, and more.
To monitor humanity's progress towards avoiding critical human deprivation, the latest Doughnut assessment includes 22 social indicators.
The status of these indicators in 2022 ranges from 9% of people lacking access to electricity to 75% of people stating they perceive widespread corruption, with a median level of social shortfall comprising 35% of the global population - equivalent to around 3 billion people.
Shortfall below the Doughnut's social foundation in 2022. Source: Fanning and Raworth (2025).
The table below gives an overview of the social foundation indicators and data sources included in the latest quantitative Doughnut assessment published in 2025.
The Doughnut's ecological ceiling is shown as its outer ring, beyond which lies critical planetary degradation. It is defined by nine Earth-system processes specified in the planetary boundaries framework, which underpin the remarkably stable conditions of the past 10,000 years that all living beings fundamentally depend upon.
To monitor humanity's progress towards avoiding critical planetary degradation, the latest Doughnut assessment includes 13 ecological indicators.
The status of these indicators in 2022 ranges from around 50% below the stratospheric ozone boundary to more than 10 times beyond the safe boundaries for chemical pollution and species extinction, with a median level of overshoot that is two times beyond the ecological ceiling.
Overshoot beyond the Doughnut's ecological ceiling in 2022. Source: Fanning and Raworth (2025).
The table below gives an overview of the ecological ceiling indicators and data sources included in the latest quantitative Doughnut assessment published in 2025.
21st century trends
Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, there has been a concerning divergence between social and ecological trends at the global scale.
Humanity has generally made progress towards achieving the Doughnut's social foundation, although this improvement has been modest given the extent of deprivation remaining. Meanwhile, humanity's collective pressure on the living planet has substantially worsened since the early 2000s and had transgressed six of the nine planetary boundaries by 2022.
The 'unrolled' Doughnut bar-chart above shows trends in outcomes between 2000 and 2022, and complements the circular Doughnut diagram by making visible the quantified ecological dimensions that have not overshot the ecological ceiling.
Pink areas in the bars show the reduction in shortfall or overshoot between the start and end periods, while dark red areas show the increase in shortfall or overshoot between the start and end periods. The grey bar shows missing data. Overshoot bars with a faded edge extend beyond the chart area.
Inequalities in shortfall and overshoot
The latest quantitative assessment in 2025 disaggregated the global Doughnut into three clusters of countries by income percentiles: the poorest 40%, the middle 40%, and the richest 20%.
Based on the median results, the richest 20% of countries (home to 15% of people) were responsible for over 40% of ecological overshoot in 2017, while the poorest 40% (home to 42% of people) experienced more than 60% of global deprivation.
Hover or tap on individual wedges in the interactive Doughnuts below to explore details on the indicator selected for each country cluster.
In the country-cluster Doughnut plots above, dark green circles show the social foundation and ecological ceiling. Red wedges show the status of each country cluster's population relative to minimum social standards, or of each country cluster's consumption-based environmental 'footprints' relative to downscaled per capita boundaries. Grey wedges show indicators with missing data.
Dive deeper
Since its first publication in 2012 the Doughnut has gained international recognition and widespread application.
Explore additional tools that 'downscale' the Doughnut framework to nations and cities, and see how local governments, communities, researchers, businesses, and educators are putting the core concepts and tools of Doughnut Economics into practice.
Join the DEAL Community!
Get inspired, connect with others and become part of the movement. No matter how big or small your contribution is, you’re welcome to join!