Tech & Data

The World's Smartest Cities in 2026

The IMD Smart City Index asks residents how well their city's infrastructure and technology serve them. Its 2026 edition, published on 31 March 2026, ranks 148 cities, up from 102 in the first edition in 2019. These are the top 20, led by Zurich, Oslo and Geneva, with each city's move since the 2025 index.

Still from the “Smart City Zürich” video

Pictured: Zurich, #1 in the IMD Smart City Index 2026 and the only city rated AAA overall.

Rank City Country Region 2025 rank Change
1ZurichSwitzerlandEurope1–
2OsloNorwayEurope2–
3GenevaSwitzerlandEurope3–
4LondonUnited KingdomEurope6+2
5CopenhagenDenmarkEurope7+2
6DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesMiddle East4−2
7LausanneSwitzerlandEurope10+3
8CanberraAustraliaOceania8–
9SingaporeSingaporeAsia9–
10Abu DhabiUnited Arab EmiratesMiddle East5−5
11HelsinkiFinlandEurope11–
12SeoulSouth KoreaAsia13+1
13PragueCzechiaEurope12−1
14StockholmSwedenEurope18+4
15HamburgGermanyEurope20+5
16BeijingChinaAsia14−2
17AmsterdamNetherlandsEurope17–
18LjubljanaSloveniaEurope16−2
19MunichGermanyEuropeOutside top 20New
20ShanghaiChinaAsia15−5

The Top 10

#1

Zurich, Switzerland — AAA

Zurich keeps first place in the 2026 index and is the only one of the 148 cities to earn the top AAA overall rating. It scores AAA on the Structures pillar (residents' view of existing infrastructure such as health, mobility and governance) and AA on Technology (the digital services available to them).[1][2][4] IMD notes that the three leaders all score higher on structures than on technology. The city has run its own “Smart City Zürich” strategy since 2019, covering integrated public mobility, a digital city administration and citizen participation.[6]

#2

Oslo, Norway — AA

Oslo holds second place for another year, rated AA overall, with AAA for Structures and A for Technology.[1][4] The Norwegian capital is best known abroad for electrifying its streets: it is one of the world's leading cities for electric-vehicle adoption, the subject of the Freethink film above.

#3

Geneva, Switzerland — AA

Geneva completes a podium that is unchanged from 2025, again with an AA rating.[1][4] It has climbed steadily in recent editions, from fourth in 2024 to third in both 2025 and 2026, and is one of three Swiss cities in the top 10.[2][5]

#4

London, United Kingdom — up 2

London rises two places from sixth, making it the highest-ranked English-speaking city in the index.[2][3] Coverage of the release credited London and Copenhagen's climb partly to the slide of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which both dropped out of the top five.[7] The video above is the London Assembly's session on “Smarter London Together”, the Mayor's smart-city roadmap.

#5

Copenhagen, Denmark — up 2

Copenhagen also climbs two places, from seventh to fifth, rounding out an all-European top five.[2][3] The Danish capital has long marketed itself as a test bed for smart-city technology, from intelligent traffic signals to its CPH Solutions Lab, alongside its carbon-neutrality push.

#6

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — down 2

Dubai slips from fourth to sixth but is the highest-ranked city outside Europe for the second year running, rated A on both the Structures and Technology pillars.[8][9] Its 2025 jump had been dramatic: up from 12th in 2024 to fourth, the first time both Dubai and Abu Dhabi had made the top 10.[10]

#7

Lausanne, Switzerland — up 3

Lausanne climbs three places from tenth, back to the seventh place it held in 2024.[2][5] With about 150,000 residents it is one of the smallest cities in the top 20, and famously the smallest city in the world with its own metro system — the subject of the transit video above.

#8

Canberra, Australia — unchanged

Canberra holds eighth place and remains Australia's highest-ranked city (it was third in 2024). Residents rated it well above the global average for health and safety, traffic flow, job opportunities and green spaces; the biggest complaint was housing, with 89% naming affordable housing as the top issue to fix.[11]

#9

Singapore — unchanged

Singapore stays ninth for a second straight year, after dropping from fifth in 2024, and remains the top-ranked city in East and Southeast Asia.[2][12] The city-state topped this index in its early editions, and its government-led “Smart Nation” programme, now in a 2.0 phase focused on AI, is one of the best-known national smart-city efforts.

#10

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — down 5

Abu Dhabi falls five places from its 2025 high of fifth, but stays in the top 10 with an A rating on both pillars, giving the UAE two top-10 cities.[8][9] Its TAMM platform, shown above, brings the emirate's government services into one app. Just outside the top 10, Helsinki holds 11th; further down, Stockholm (+4) and Hamburg (+5) were the biggest climbers inside the top 20, while Munich entered it at 19th and Hong Kong (19th in 2025) dropped out.[3][10]

Cities Smart Cities Technology

Sources

  1. IMD World Competitiveness Center, Smart City Index 2026: The quest for trust and transparency (seventh edition, published 31 March 2026; 148 cities, each scored on residents' perceptions across a Structures pillar and a Technology pillar, with surveys weighted 3:2:1 across the last three years and an overall rating from AAA down to D), and IMD's news release “Transparency and public trust are key to urban success” — top three, number of cities and methodology.
  2. Time Out (USA, Australia and Sydney editions) and Daily Hive coverage of the 2026 index — the top 10 and top 20, the rating scale, and individual city movements.
  3. Place Brand Observer, “IMD Smart City Index 2026: What It Means for Urban Leaders” — London and Copenhagen's rise into the top five, Dubai in sixth, Abu Dhabi in tenth, and the biggest movers outside the top 20.
  4. Gadget.ro and Time Out coverage — overall ratings for Zurich (AAA, the only AAA city; AAA Structures, AA Technology), Oslo (AA; AAA Structures, A Technology) and Geneva (AA).
  5. GGBA Switzerland and Netzwoche coverage of Geneva's and Lausanne's placings in the 2024 and 2025 editions.
  6. Netzwoche reporting on the City of Zurich's “Smart City Zürich” strategy (presented December 2018, approved by the city parliament in 2019).
  7. Lusa / Yicai reporting on the 2026 release (31 March 2026), including London and Copenhagen rising two places each as Dubai and Abu Dhabi declined.
  8. Gulf News, “Dubai, Abu Dhabi rank among world's top 10 smartest cities”, and Middle East AI News — Dubai sixth and Abu Dhabi tenth among 148 cities, each rated A on both pillars.
  9. Platinumlist Guide — Dubai as the highest-ranked city outside Europe for a second successive year.
  10. IMD Smart City Index 2025 top 20 as reported by Howden (via HR Online Asia), Telefónica and Aletihad — every city's 2025 rank used for the “2025 rank” and “Change” columns (including Dubai's rise from 12th in 2024 and Hong Kong at 19th in 2025).
  11. Time Out Australia and 2CC / 2CA Canberra radio coverage of Canberra's eighth place and its resident-survey results.
  12. Smart Nation Singapore, “Our achievements” — Singapore's IMD Smart City Index rank of 9 in 2025 and 2026, after 5 in 2024; Singapore Economic Development Board, “Singapore is world's smartest city for the third year” — its first-place finishes in the early editions.
  13. Ranks 11–20 cross-checked across Daily Hive, Siviaggia and Voloscontato's published top-20 lists for 2026.