The purpose of this Nordic set of indicators is to inform the public and political decision makers whether the Nordic countries and self-governing areas are heading in the right direction towards sustainable development or not; both in general and in specific areas. The indicators also point out if there is a need to promote the development towards a more sustainable direction. The chosen indicators are monitoring the Nordic implementation of the goals and initiatives for 2005-2008, as they are set up in the revised Nordic Strategy "Sustainable development - New bearings for the Nordic countries.

The set of indicators contains a number of overall key-indicators as well as indicators relevant to the specific sectors or cross-cutting areas pointed out in the revised strategy. New areas in the revised strategy are the social dimension as well as sustainable production and consumption.

The Nordic Council of Ministers has published Nordic sets of indicators in 2002 and 2003.