Urban Development Ranking 2024
Germany has a digital ranking system for its major cities, known as the Smart City Index. This index evaluates the digital infrastructure and services of each city, based on 37 indicators calculated from 160 parameters per city.
The Smart City Index ranks cities such as Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Berlin, and Hamburg. In the 2025 edition of the index, Munich holds the highest position, maintaining first place among 83 German cities with over 100,000 inhabitants. Stuttgart ranks third, and Hamburg follows closely in second place, with Munich leading the ranking.
Berlin currently holds the top spot in Germany's digital city ranking, although Munich has taken over in the 2025 index. The cities included in the ranking provide data for the evaluation, which is also supplemented by official statistics and publicly accessible data sources.
Experts from Bitkom have collected, verified, and qualified 13,280 data points across five thematic areas for the Smart City Index. These areas are not specified in detail, but they include factors such as online citizen services, mobility sharing offers, intelligent traffic lights, and broadband availability.
The Smart City Index aims to encourage competition among cities to improve their digital services and infrastructure. By doing so, it encourages cities to invest in digital technologies and provide better services to their citizens. The ranking is updated annually to reflect changes in digital infrastructure and services.
The cities included in the ranking are all major German cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The results of the Smart City Index are available for each city individually, allowing citizens and businesses to compare the digital services and infrastructure of different cities.
In summary, the Smart City Index is a valuable tool for evaluating and improving the digital infrastructure and services of Germany's major cities. By ranking cities based on various factors, it encourages competition and investment in digital technologies, ultimately benefiting citizens and businesses alike.
