Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Zurich retained the top spot for the fifth consecutive edition of the IMD Smart City Index, with Oslo in second place and Canberra in third. Geneva was fourth, Singapore fifth, and Lausanne secured seventh position. No Japanese city made it into the Top 20.
The Swiss city of Zurich rank #1 again at the IMD Smart City Index 2024.
Technology and life quality
The report ranks 142 smart cities worldwide based on data analyzed by researchers, as well as survey responses of 120 residents in each city. The study captures an overview of how the infrastructure and technology available in a city impacts its performance and the quality of life of its inhabitants. A smart city is defined as “an urban setting that applies technology to enhance the benefits and diminish the shortcomings of urbanization for its citizens.”
The index is compiled on an annual basis by the World Competitiveness Center of the IMD Business School headquartered in Lausanne and Singapore. Over the past few years, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization based in the South Korean capital Seoul has been cooperating with the index.
Assistance from AI
“Cities must design and adopt strategies that can resist the test of a future plagued with growing uncertainties,” said Bruno Lanvin, President of the Smart City Observatory, part of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, which performed the research.
“Trust and good governance are growing in importance, and the significance of AI in city design and management is set to increase. Counterintuitive as it may sound, AI can help cities to become more human-centric.”
Europe and Asia lead
Zurich, Oslo, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, and Seoul are the most consistently high-performing cities in the Top 20 since the Index started in 2019. Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tallinn, Riyadh, and Melbourne look likely to enter the Top 20 soon, judging by their momentum across recent years.
Zurich was awarded a Smart City Rating of AAA. It gained the same rating for the Structures sub-group, and a score of AA for the Technologies sub-group. The same criteria applied to health & safety, mobility, activities, education and governance.
Among the 15 priorities, 76 percent of the surveyed Zurich residents cited affordable housing, ahead of traffic congestion (58.8 percent) and air pollution (32.2 percent). Geneva improved its ranking from ninth place to fourth place. With a population of around 200,000 people, the city attained the same ratings as Zurich.
North America drops out
For the first time since the Index’s creation in 2019, there were no North American cities in the Top 20. By contrast, all but three were Asian or European. The data shows a worsening of infrastructure and safety across North America. On the contrary, overall quality of life has played a positive role in an increasing number of European cities.
All details are available in the IMD Smart City Index 2024 Report here.
Text: SCCIJ based on material of S-GE and IMD; Picture: Wikipedia
