Last year, it was already a neck-and-neck race. This year, Munich, with 84.5 out of 100 possible points, overtook Hamburg with 83.9 points in the overall ranking, thus leading the 2023 Smart City Ranking for the first time. Cologne follows in third place with 83.2 points.
For five years Bitkom has been compiling the Smart City Ranking, a digital ranking of all German cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants. The digital economy association analyzes and evaluates 81 cities in the five areas of administration, IT and communications, energy and environment, mobility, and society and education. Each of the five areas consists of 37 indicators with a total of 157 parameters – from online citizen services and sharing options to broadband availability and digital training. Cities can achieve a maximum score of 100 per indicator. A total of 12,717 data points were collected.
"The fifth Smart City Index shows the state of digitalization in Germany's major cities more accurately than ever before. We have expanded the indicators examined and, for the first time, included the important topic of education. We see great momentum within the ranking and, for the first time, a change at the top: Munich has moved just ahead of Hamburg, thus reaping the rewards of the efforts of recent years."
comments Bitkom President Ralf WintergerstNot only is the gap between the podium places narrow, but the top 10 are also getting closer together. The gap between 4th and 10th place is just 3.5 points – the smallest ever.
Munich's Smart City Ranking scores in detail
In the area of administration, Munich achieved the best score (94.2) among other cities. Munich particularly scores highly with new measures in the areas of internal processes, payments, OZG benefits (parental allowance, driver's license, and vehicle registration), and digital services. Munich also ranks first in IT and communications (97.3). These include, for example, broadband and fiber optic infrastructure, 5G, the Open Data Portal, the Geoportal, and other smart city data projects.
In the area of society and education, Munich ranks fifth in a city comparison. The city achieved the highest scores in the indicators "Digitalization Concept for Schools," "Digital Competence," "Digital Scene," and "Public Participation." It also achieved a good score of 80.0 for local retail and startup hubs.
Dieter Reiter, Mayor of the state capital Munich, says:
“With this top ranking, the state capital demonstrates how smart solutions can successfully improve the livelihoods of its citizens.”
Munich ranks 11th in mobility. While its smart traffic management, smart public transport, and sharing options are impressive, the parking situation is rated significantly lower. There's also room to catch up in energy and the environment. Here, Munich ranks only 35th. The city received the best score of 92.5 points for the share of registered electric vehicles, and the worst score of 14.2 for energy solutions.
The complete ranking is available on the website of the digital association Bitkom.
