Smart City Index
This is how German cities are set up digitally
Bavaria’s state capital Munich is the front runner in the Smart City Index 2024.
© imago/Christian Offenberg
How is digitalization going in Germany? The Smart City Index attempts to answer this question for German cities.
“Digitalization stops at nothing,” it is often said, but sometimes it is also added that it takes a little longer in Germany. In order to create comparability, at least within Germany, the digital association Bitkom annually examines German cities for their level of digitization in its Smart City Index. Five categories are examined: administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility and society and education. These are the results this year.
Munich remains the digitally leading city in Germany and is expanding its lead Smart City Index 2024 continues. This emerges from the current evaluation by the digital association Bitkom. Hamburg and Cologne are once again in second and third place. There were shifts in the overall ranking of major German cities, especially outside the top positions: Bochum was able to improve from eleventh place to fourth place, while Aachen fell from fifth place to eleventh place. Also new in the top 10 are Freiburg im Breisgau (six) and Lübeck (eight).
Diverse leaders in individual categories
With 88.3 out of 100 possible points, Munich continues to lead all other cities in the IT and communication category. Hamburg was also able to improve, but the gap to Munich increased to 86.2 points despite an increase. With 83.2 points, Cologne not only secured third place in the overall ranking, but also first place in the digital administration category for the first time.
But there are also leaders in the lower places: Düsseldorf, in 17th place in the overall ranking, leads the society and education category for the first time, while Ingolstadt (23rd place) surprisingly takes first place in the energy and environment category. Berlin, in 28th place in the overall ranking, achieved a new record in the mobility category with the maximum number of points of 100. Despite weaker overall rankings, these cities show that they can also be pioneers of digitalization in some areas.
Promoters and relegators: movement in the overall ranking
Reutlingen was able to make up the most ground in the overall ranking, moving up 27 places to 51st place. Potsdam also shows significant progress: the Brandenburg state capital climbed 21 places to 27th place, making it one of the biggest winners of the year. Würzburg and Ingolstadt were also able to improve significantly, gaining 19 places each. Saarbrücken also recorded a significant jump forward and improved by 17 places to 49th place.
On the other hand, there are also clear losers in the ranking. Siegen fell the most, with a loss of 18 places to 68th place. Offenbach am Main and Mannheim also lose significantly: Offenbach slips 16 places to 72nd place, Mannheim loses 15 places and is now in 30th place. Erlangen also loses 15 places and is now in 66th place. Remscheid, which is in 80th place is also one of the cities that has fallen significantly behind and is now only just ahead of Salzgitter, which is at the bottom.
For this year’s Smart City Index, over 13,000 data points from 82 German cities were collected and evaluated. The data comes from the five categories and was provided by the municipalities. With a response rate of 99 percent, almost all German cities took part in the survey.