One third of sharks and rays are threatened with an elevated risk of extinction largely due to overfishing. Fortunately, rising awareness of the plight of sharks and rays has driven a recent increase in conservation actions. Despite this progress, there is concern that limited resources are being allocated appropriately to ensure actions translate into conservation outcomes, such as halting declines and reducing extinction risk. Further, signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity are required to deliver the Global Framework for Managing Nature by 2030 and hit targets that will ensure sustainable fisheries (Target 5) and extinctions are avoided (Goal A), and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’ (Goal 14). Yet there are few marine indicators to track these global targets. We describe the results of a global reassessment of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species status of all 1,199 chondrichthyans involving 322 assessors spanning 17 regional and thematic workshops in 2013–2020 and more than 871 timeseries from 202 species. We develop indices of global change in abundance and extinction risk to track these global targets, and outline the first of these indices for oceanic sharks and rays.