Ranking Methodology

The Top 50 Smart City Government Rankings requires a robust methodological approach to ensure that as many potential smart cities around the world are considered and holistically evaluated as possible, focusing explicitly on the role of city governments in driving smart city development. In our 2018/2019 rankings, we first developed a broadlist of 140 cities from those mentioned in existing smart city rankings, news articles, websites, and other media sources.

For the 2020/2021 edition, we were able to expand our initial broadlist to form a total list of 235 cities. The increase of 95 cities in the most recent rankings account for those which have gained greater recognition or recently developed in the past two years, as well as regional representation across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America, and South America. 

While this broadlisting method allows us to identify as many smart city governments deserving of further study as possible, several additional steps were taken to narrow this list and arrive at the final ranking of 50 cities. First, Eden launched a Call for Proposals inviting city government representatives from the 235 cities in the broad list to submit relevant documents, news articles, and data to supplement our secondary research. The primary data collected from the Call for Proposals helped to complete our understanding of each city and ensure that each city government was represented fairly and comprehensively in this study to the greatest extent possible. Subsequently, the cities were ranked based on ten key factors outlined below:  

VISION. A clear and well-defined strategy to develop a “smart city”

LEADERSHIP. Dedicated City leadership that steers smart city projects

BUDGET. Sufficient funding for smart city projects

FINANCIAL. Financial incentives to effectively encourage private sector participation (e.g. grants, rebates, subsidies, competitions)

SUPPORT PROGRAMMES. In-kind programmes to encourage private actors to participate (e.g. incubators, events, networks)

POLICIES. A conducive policy environment for smart city development (e.g. data governance, IP protection, urban design)

ECOSYSTEMS. A comprehensive range of engaged stakeholders to sustain innovation

PEOPLE-CENTRICITY. A sincere, people-first design of the future city

TALENT-READINESS. Programmes to equip the city’s talent with smart skills

TRACK RECORD. The government’s experience in catalyzing successful smart city initiatives

Cities were then scored on a scale of one to four for each of these ten factors, representing low to high for each of the criterion. With each factor, a “high” would indicate a best-in-class effort that could involve originality and resourcefulness, multiple institutionalised initiatives, demonstrated authenticity and commitment, and success attributable to that factor. Conversely, lower scores would reflect that cities were not yet prepared or had not introduced any of the relevant programmes, policies, or initiatives. Sporadic or partial implementation of smart city initiatives earned a “mid” category score of either two or three, depending on the extent of implementation observed.

Our assessments and subsequent scores were informed by the primary and secondary research conducted on that particular element of the city. For example, a city government’s vision would be assessed based on available material and sources which explained or referenced its vision. This often includes a combination of Smart City Plans, Action Plans, strategy or roadmap documents typically issued by city governments, information published on the official city website, press releases, well as third-party publications (e.g. UN-Habitat, research institutions). The scores were further validated where possible through additional in-depth virtual interviews conducted with key stakeholders including Mayors, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Digitial Officers, and Smart City Project Managers who shared detailed information about smart city initiatives underway in their respective cities and their unique city development journeys. We compiled some of their insights and stories into a series of videos to share publicly online, which you may find at our official website www.smartcitygovt.com.

Having assigned a score from one to four for each of the ten criteria, we calculated a total score for each city which then determined their positions on the rankings. Cities with a high score, meaning those which were the most exemplary across the ten factors, were positioned at the top of our rankings. The top 50 cities from the broader list of 235 cities then emerged as the 2020/2021 Top 50 Smart City Governments.