We researched 500 cities worldwide with medium to high positions in the UN Human Development Index. The cities also rank on the UN prosperity list and the European Commission’s Digital City Index. We aimed to cover a wide range of regions, and prioritised capitals and financial centres.

We analysed the cities for 24 factors that determine a smart city, and then ranked the top 100. While the cities at the top of the index deserve praise, those at the bottom should also be given credit as emerging urban spaces making impressive strides towards integrated information networks.

We collected granular level data across a range of criteria: Transport and Mobility, Sustainability, Governance, Innovation Economy, Digitalisation, Cyber Security, Living Standard and Expert Perception. To create the final score, we then ranked the raw data and standardised it out of 10.

Final Score = 22.5% Transport and Mobility(i) + 12.5% Sustainability(i) + 15% Governance(i) + 5% Innovation Economy(i) + 17.5% Digitisation(i) + 10% Living Standard(i) + 7.5% Cyber Security(i) + 10% Expert Perception(i)

Each factor is scored from 1 – 10, the higher the score, the better. Below you can find a description of how each factor was researched.

Smart Parking

Availability of parking apps and usage penetration (Source: Google Play Store, App Store)

Number of parking spaces in the city centre (per Km2) (Source: OpenStreetMaps)



Car Sharing Services

Number of car sharing services

Number of cars owned by car sharing services in respect to the city’s population (Sources: Local Reports, Official Sites of car2Go, GoGet, Zipcar, DriveNow, Communauto, Car4away, Autonapůl, LetsGo, GreenMobility, Autolib’, GoCar, Enjoy, XXImo, Bluemove, Sunfleet, Mobility Carsharing and Flinkster. Population data from Google.)



Traffic

Levels of congestion. Sources: TomTom Traffic index, INRIX traffic scorecard (adjusted to TomTom), Google traffic (adjusted to TomTom).



Public Transport

Percentage of people satisfied with public transportation services (Source: Local Reports, European Commission report)



E-charge Spots

Number of E- charging spots (Source: OpenStreetMaps, Plugshare database)



Infrastructure Investment

State investment in infrastructure (Source: Local Reports, OECD Reports)



Clean energy

Percentage of total energy production that is renewable (Source: Local Reports, The World Bank)



Smart Building

Percentage of GDP invested in Research & Development (R&D)

Amount invested in R&D (Source: Local Reports, The World Bank, Global Innovation Index)

GDP per unit of energy (in kWh) (Source: Global Innovation Index)



Recycling Rate

Percentage of waste being recycled in tonnes per day per year (Source: Municipal Solid Waste, Local Reports, OECD Report)

GDP divided by waste generated (Source: United Nations)



Environment Protection

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), in metric tonnes per capita (Source: Local Reports, The World Bank)

Level of CO2 emissions (Source: United Nations)



Environmental Performance

24 performance indicators across ten issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality (Source: Environmental Performance Index)



Citizen Participation

Percentage of the population that vote per city and per country (Source: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Local Election Reports)



Digitalization of Government

Digital Infrastructure Rank (Source: Digital City Index)

Traffic of local government sites as a percentage of the population.



Urban Planning

Number of airports per city: international, national and private (Source: OpenStreetMaps)

The percentage of green public areas in respect to the total city area (Source: OpenStreetMaps)



Education

Number of personal computers per 1000 inhabitants (Source: IT Development Index, Local Reports)

Country ranking on the IT Development Index (Source: International Telecommunications Union, United Nations)



Business Ecosystem

National Global Innovation Score (Source: Global Innovation Index, United Nations)

Number of registered startups per city (Source: Angel.co)



Blockchain Ecosystem

Number of Blockchain transactions per country (Source: coin.dance)

Number of Blockchain startups per city (Source: Angel.co)



4G LTE

Average 4G download speed (in Mbps), adjusted to the internet speed of each city (Mbps) (Source: Online Speed Test)



Internet Speed

Average internet download speed per country and per city (Mbps) averaged (Source: Online Speed Test, Publicly available data from the Digital City Index)



Wi-Fi Hotspots

Free Wi-Fi hotspots (Sources: Online Wi-Fi databases)

Adjusted to the city area



Smartphone Penetration

Percentage of people owning a smartphone in each country (Source: Local Reports, Online Databases)



Living Standard

GDP per capita for each country (Source: World Bank Data)

Average annual salary in dollars (Source: Average Salary Survey Data)

Summed costs, calculated as the average price for: A fast-food meal Restaurant meal Monthly rent for a furnished apartment (45m2 = 480sqft) Cost of a monthly transport ticket (Source: Expatistan)





Expert Perception

220,000 technology and urban planning journalists were asked to rank the smartest cities (Source: Poll on top 120 cities)



Cyber Security