The 10 cities closest to a smart city future

Data-collecting platform ProptechOS has released a ranking of the ten cities most ready for the technology transition. However, European cities score lower than the average U.S. city.

Whether it is the exponential growth of artificial intelligence that informs our daily lives and decision making or local infrastructure, the increasing development of different forms of technology is not only faster, but also more in demand. Smart cities, or the ability to use tools offered by technological development to increase the quality of life for citizens by creating greater efficiencies in resources and services, is perhaps the dominant paradigm in urban planning over the past two decades.

The data-collecting platform ProptechOS has published their research on the cities they believe are most ready for this technological transition. There are many ways to measure a city's digital infrastructure or “smartness”, and the specific study looks at eleven metrics that fall into the categories of technology infrastructure and connectivity, technology-driven labor market, and sustainability.


The study focuses mainly on Western countries, offering two rankings focusing on European countries and the United States. Among the latter, the top-ranked city is Austin, Texas, awarded for technology infrastructure and green infrastructure. European cities, on the other hand, score lower than the average U.S. city in terms of smart city potential. However, within the top 20 cities overall, we can note that both London and Amsterdam. As the top European city, the English metropolis scored particularly high on technology and connectivity infrastructure and green infrastructure.


Among the other cities, although Paris does not score highest in any particular technology and connectivity metric, it consistently ranks above average in most of them, meaning that its overall score puts it at the top of this category of our index.

Opening image: Oslo. Photo Jacek Dylag via Unsplash

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