What are the 10 most innovative cities in the world?
To provide the classification it was Smart City Index 2024 created by the Smart City Observatory of the IMD World Competitiveness Center in collaboration with the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) based in Seoul, South Korea.
At first reading, what catches your attention is that the so-called Smart cities in Europe and Asia are gaining ground globally, while the North American ones are falling in the rankings. Guiding the analysis is the observation of how much cutting-edge infrastructure and technology is actually available in a city, thus influencing the city’s performance and the quality of life of its inhabitants.
Below is the complete ranking of 10 most innovative cities in the world.
The 10 most innovative cities in the world: 2024 ranking
Before we get into the list of best Smart cities globallyit is interesting to point out that a smart city is defined as “an urban context that applies the technology to increase benefits and reduce the defects of urbanization for its citizens” in the report.
The cities in the ranking are those that have also developed useful initiatives to satisfy the overall quality of life of their citizens, for example through the development of green spaces and new and broader opportunities for cultural events and social relations.
Not only that, the report highlighted that in many cases the cities mentioned in the ranking have devised innovative strategies to “attract and retain talent, promote investments selectively [ad esempio a favore della sostenibilità] and address long-standing issues related to geographic inequalities and inclusion”.
This is the ranking of 10 most innovative cities in the world:
- ZurichSwiss
- OsloNorway
- CanberraAustralia
- GenevaSwiss
- Singapore
- CopenhagenDenmark
- LausanneSwiss
- LondonEngland
- HelsinkiFinland
- Abu DhabiUnited Arab Emirates
Curiosity: for the first time since the launch of the index in 2019, there is an absence of North American cities among the top 20. The American city with the highest score this year is New York City, in 34th place, followed from Boston in 36th and Washington DC, in 50th place.
While the European cities dominate the ranking, Asian ones are also gaining ground. Singapore has consistently ranked in the top 10 since the index’s inception in 2019. Taipei city has also jumped 13 places in the past year, from 29th in 2023 to 16th this year. Beijing ranked 13th.
