These cities are best prepared for a ‘smart city’ future

Technology is developing faster than ever before. But are our cities keeping up?

Read our new 2024 Smart City Index here

Whether it’s the exponential growth of artificial intelligence informing our daily lives and decision-making or the spread of IoT (internet of things), the increasing development of different forms of technology is moving faster with each passing year.

But new technologies can only support us as much as the infrastructure and environment around us are built to facilitate it.

There are many ways to measure the digital infrastructure or ‘smartness’ of a city. And for this research, we have collated and aggregated various metrics in order to reveal which major cities in Europe and the USA are best prepared for a smarter future.

Our research

There is a multitude of ways to measure the smartness of a city and how proficiently adapted it is to evolving digital technologies.

For the purpose of this study, we have considered 11 measurements that fall into the categories of tech infrastructure and connectivity, a tech-driven job market, and sustainability.

1. Tech infrastructure and connectivity:

– Free WiFi hotspots
– Broadband download speeds
– Availability of airports
– Number of IoT companies (in total and per 100,000 of the population)
– Number of 5G network towers

2. Green infrastructure:

– The number of public-access electric vehicle charging points
– The number of public access electric vehicle charging points per 10,000 of the population
– The number of ‘green certified’ buildings

3. Tech-driven job market:

– The number of tech jobs
– The number of tech jobs per 10,000 of the population

Taking these 11 indicators into equally-weighted consideration, here are the results of our index that reveals which cities are best prepared for a smarter future.

The highest-ranking city in the US is Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas takes the top spot in our ranking of smart city potential across the US.

Both the city’s technology infrastructure (87.7 out of 100) and green infrastructure (91.7 out of 100) rank significantly high in comparison to many other cities, with the 8th highest number of publicly accessible EV charging stations (329), the 11th highest per 10,000 people (33.2), and the 8th highest number of ‘Internet of Things’ companies (76) headquartered and operating there.

The 10 US cities best prepared for a ‘smart city’ future

Based on 11 metrics, divided into three categories (tech infrastructure, green infrastructure, tech jobs market) equally weighted with a score out of 100, and combined towards one total score out of 100

The 10 European cities best prepared for a ‘smart city’ future

Based on 11 metrics, divided into three categories (tech infrastructure, green infrastructure, tech jobs market) equally weighted with a score out of 100, and combined towards one total score out of 100

The highest-ranking city in Europe is London

European cities score lower than the average US city in smart city potential. However, within the top 20 cities overall, we can see that both London (3rd) and Amsterdam (16th) rank in good company as two of the best-performing cities in our analysis.

As the top European city, London scores particularly high on its technology and connectivity infrastructure, and on its green infrastructure. The English capital has nine 5G towers installed, which is more than any other city in our analysis. Also, its average broadband speeds are 82.7mbps, which is better than 65% of the other cities in our analysis with comparable data.

While it lags somewhat behind on its tech-driven job market (51st place), the city does still boast 49,818 tech job vacancies on the market right now — equivalent to 56 per 10,000 people who live there.

Paris leads the way in technology and connectivity infrastructure

While Paris doesn’t score highest on any particular tech and connectivity metric, it scores steadily above average in most of them, meaning its well-rounded score puts it top of this category of our index.

More notable rankings for the French city include the 6th highest number of free public Wifi hotspots (10,663) in a boost to its internet connectivity capabilities, and the 4th highest number of ‘Internet of Things’ companies headquartered there (258).

London leads the rest in green infrastructure

London’s green infrastructure scores highest for a smart city future in our analysis.

We see London performing best on its overall number of EV chargers, with 2,600 publicly accessible in and around the city, as well as 29.2 per 10,000 people. Also has the highest number of 4,948 green certified buildings, according to the Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG)’s categorizing.

10 cities with the highest ranking tech and connectivity infrastructure for a smart city future across Europe and USA

Based on 6 metrics related to tech infrastructure and connectivity, equally weighted into a normalised score out of 100

10 cities with the highest ranking green infrastructure for a smart city future across Europe and USA

Based on 3 metrics related to tech infrastructure and connectivity, equally weighted into a normalised score out of 100

Three US cities rank highly for their tech job market availability

Washington DC, Minneapolis, and Oakland all rank joint-highest for having the widest array of tech job availability. 

Washington boasts 70,567 tech jobs currently hiring (third-highest), while both Minneapolis (6th) and Oakland (7th) have more than 55,000 tech job ads live.

When comparing the number of tech jobs to the number of overall jobs on the market, Minneapolis has 1,293 per 10,000 jobs, Oakland 1,278 per 10,000, and Washington 998 per 1,000.

Methodology

We began our analysis with a seed list of 100 cities from Europe and the USA (capital and most populated) and originally considered 18 measurements/indicators related to the OECD’s recommendations for smart cities.

Our final ranking of indicators was narrowed down to 11 to ensure like-for-like comparisons between cities.

Each metric was scored and normalized out of 100 — is equally weighted to a score out of 100 for their parent categories: technology and connectivity infrastructure, sustainability infrastructure, and the tech job-driven market before a final overall score per city were given.

Read our new 2024 Smart City Index here

10 cities with the highest ranking tech job market for a smart city future across Europe and USA

Based on the cities with the most tech jobs + the most tech jobs per 10,000 people, equally weighted into a normalised score out of 100

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