The Scottish government is failing to hit half its performance targets, including cutting deaths from heart disease and encouraging greater use of public transport.

A website designed to let the public track whether Scotland is becoming safer, healthier, wealthier, greener and smarter under the nationalists shows ministers delivering in only 16 out of 33 areas where performance is being measured.

But good progress is being made in other areas, including reducing NHS waiting times, reducing dental disease among school children and generating power from renewable sources.

The Scotland Performs site, unveiled by John Swinney, the finance minister, was intended to spur the civil service to raise its performance, but in nine areas outcomes have got worse, while in eight cases performance has remained the same.

In a further 11 over-arching targets, only two aims are being met, while in three areas things have got worse and in six cases things have stayed the same.

The missed targets include pledges to cut coronary heart deaths among the under 75s in deprived areas and to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children whose body mass index is outside a healthy range.

The latest figure of 112.4 deaths per 100,000 population in the most deprived areas in 2007 compares with 110.2 in 2006.

Others missed include a target to increase the number of people walking, cycling or taking public transport to work. Instead, official figures show 69% of adults travelled to work by car or van in 2007, 2% more than in 2006.

Ministers aimed to cut the rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions by 2011, but in 2007/8 it rose by 7% to 777 per 100,000 population.

Despite a pledge to lower the proportion of people aged 65 and over admitted as emergency inpatients on two or more occasions in a year, the latest figure of 4.9% for 2008 represents a slight increase on the 4.8% seen in the previous year.

Where other targets have been set — including reducing the number of Scots in poverty, the proportion who smoke, increasing healthy life expectancy at birth in the most deprived areas and increasing the proportion of school leavers in work, training or education — things are unchanged.

Iain Gray, the Labour leader, said the figures were “damning”, adding: “Not only are these key measures in health, transport, education and skills being missed, we also know of the failures in justice and environmental policy.

“Only in the last week we have seen the failure of the Scottish Futures Trust to build a single school in the lifetime of this parliament and Alex Salmond’s political timidity over tackling climate change.

“The SNP offer the politics of dither and under-achievement and now they are damned by their own admission. Not only is the SNP failing to improve the lives of Scots in key areas like health and transport, things were measurably better under Labour.”

A spokesman for the Scottish government said it was making good progress, with 24 of the 33 indicators showing performance improving or being maintained.

“In tough economic times and only halfway through our parliamentary term, we have already achieved key successes — with indicators for increasing the business start-up rate, achieving waiting times targets in the NHS, boosting the rate of new housebuilding, and making Scotland a green energy powerhouse all improving.

“Clearly, reversing deep-seated social and health problems in relation to alcohol misuse, coronary heart disease and poor diet take time, and the Scottish government have policies in place to achieve improvements in our term of office, as well as the monitoring mechanism of Scotland Performs.”

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