About the EPI
Harnessing advances in data, science, and technology, the 2026 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides a comprehensive assessment of sustainability worldwide. The 2026 EPI ranks 177 countries on 47 indicators across 12 issue categories spanning three policy objectives: Environmental Health, Ecosystem Vitality, and Climate Change. These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy targets. The EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future.
EPI indicators provide a way to spot problems, set targets, track trends, understand outcomes, and identify best policy practices. Going beyond the aggregate scores and drilling down into the data to analyze performance by issue category, policy objective, peer group, and country offers even greater value for policymakers. This granular view and comparative perspective can assist in understanding the determinants of environmental progress and in refining policy choices.
Funding from the McCall MacBain Foundation supports the EPI work at both Yale and Columbia. The EPI research team is deeply grateful for this generous support.
Suggested Citation
Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., de Sherbinin, A., Block, S., et al. (2026). 2026 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. epi.yale.edu
Figure EPI scores vs GDP per capita
Countries’ wealth is a strong predictor of their overall environmental performance, but some countries vastly outperform their eco-nomic peers, while others lag.
2026 EPI Framework
The framework organizes 47 indicators into 12 issue categories and three policy objectives, with weights shown at each level as a percentage of the total score.
