Doughnut 3.0 is here
The Doughnut, updated, now monitors global trends in social shortfall and ecological overshoot over the 21st century
Today DEAL is launching a new set of resources that provide the first major stock-taking and update of the global Doughnut since 2017. These include a peer-reviewed study, a summary report, an interactive webpage, and an online launch event.
Peer-reviewed study. A new open-access study has been published today in the scientific journal Nature, entitled 'Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance', co-authored by Andrew Fanning, DEAL's Research & Data Analysis Lead and Kate Raworth, DEAL's Co-founder and Conceptual Lead. They analyse trends across 35 indicators from 2000 to 2022, transforming the 2017 version of the Doughnut from a snapshot in a single year to a monitor of 21st century trends. They also disaggregate the global Doughnut into country clusters, revealing the extent to which wealthy countries drive most of the overshoot while poorer countries bear the brunt of deprivation. The quantitative results are concerning, as described by the authors:
Our analysis shows that despite rapid global economic growth, humanity is still leaving billions of people in deprivation while pushing Earth beyond its safe limits. The world is out of balance — we urgently need economies designed to deliver both human wellbeing and planetary health.
– Andrew Fanning, Research & Data Analysis Lead at DEAL
Tracking the Doughnut's global trend reveals a stark reality: the fixation on pursuing endless GDP growth - especially in the richest of countries - is fast driving the world away from, not towards, a thriving future. It is time to focus instead on creating economies that are regenerative and distributive by design, for this will be the hallmark of twenty-first century progress.
– Kate Raworth, Co-founder and Conceptual Lead at DEAL
Evolving Doughnut report. Since it was first created in 2012, the Doughnut has kept evolving–in its dimensions, indicators and visualisation–and will continue to do so. In this new report, entitled 'The Evolving Doughnut', written by the Doughnut's creator Kate Raworth, she sets out where inspiration for the framework came from, and how and why it has evolved over its first three iterations. The report also includes the latest Doughnut diagrams, which are available for use in the creative commons.
'What is the Doughnut?' webpage. A new webpage, entitled 'What is the Doughnut?', is now available on the DEAL Platform. This webpage provides an overview of the Doughnut and how it has evolved, and it also hosts an interactive 'Doughnut Data Explorer' that visualises the latest quantitative Doughnut assessment, among other interactive visualisations. The quantitative data underpinning these visualisations will now be updated annually.
Online launch event. Join Kate Raworth and Andrew Fanning for a one-hour online launch event on October 14 at noon (UK time), which presents the results and resources included in this third iteration of the global Doughnut. The launch event will be held during Global Donut Days 2025, a community-led festival happening online and in person around the world, from 14 to 17 October.
For us at DEAL, the latest findings from the Doughnut's quantitative assessment underscore the urgency and importance of our work focused on turning ideas into transformative action, and on learning with and from others through experiments in co-creating 21st century economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
We believe that today's publication of a renewed and strengthened third iteration of the global Doughnut will inspire additional research and action — from neighbourhoods to nation — and help shape policy to move beyond GDP as the measure of success, reorienting economies to create a future that meets the needs of all within the means of the living planet. We encourage you to dive in!
Read the peer-reviewed study:
Fanning, AL and Raworth, K (2025). Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance, Nature (in press). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09385-1.
Read the report:
Raworth, K (2025). The Evolving Doughnut, Doughnut Economics Action Lab. https://doi.org/10.64981/XGRX2738.
Explore the new webpage with interactive visualisations:
https://doughnuteconomics.org/doughnut/
Join Kate Raworth and Andrew Fanning for an online launch event during Global Donut Days 2025:
October 14 at 12:00-13:00 (UK time). Event Information | Zoom Registration
Photo Credit: Photo by James Peacock on Unsplash
