Smart City Index 2026: Stuttgart tops the rankings for the first time

Circular smart city graphic featuring a digitally connected urban landscape, a river, a bridge and a solar power plant. Icons represent mobility, administration, the environment, society and digital infrastructure.

The Smart City Index 2026, compiled by the digital industry association Bitkom, examines the state of digitalisation in the 83 German cities with a population of at least 100,000. With 92.8 out of a possible 100 points, Stuttgart has taken first place for the first time, replacing Munich as the previous top-ranked city. Munich follows in second place with 92.0 points, whilst Hamburg is in third place with 91.5 points.

Five thematic areas and more than 14,400 data points

The Smart City Index assesses five areas:

Public administration,
IT and communication,
Energy and the environment,
Mobility,
Society and education.

They comprise 39 indicators and a total of 174 parameters. 14,442 data points are included in the evaluation.

The aspects examined include, amongst others, digital services provided by public administration, broadband and fibre-optic networks, digital heating planning, environmental monitoring, smart traffic management, the digitalisation of schools and digital literacy.

Stuttgart in the top 10 in all five categories

Stuttgart is the only city surveyed to rank among the top ten in all five categories. The capital of Baden-Württemberg ranks first in energy and the environment, third in administration, sixth in IT and communications, seventh in society and education, and eighth in mobility. It therefore tops the overall rankings.

Hamburg takes first place in the mobility category with 100 points and also leads the IT and communications category. Munich ranks in the top 10 in four of the five categories.

Movement in the mid-table

Erlangen and Hildesheim are among the biggest climbers in the overall rankings. Both have climbed 19 places each to 56th and 60th place respectively. Erlangen has risen 43 places in the Administration category. Mönchengladbach has climbed 18 places to 12th, entering the top 20 for the first time. Bremen has risen 13 places to 29th, having improved from 71st to 29th within two years.

In the overall ranking, Stuttgart, Munich and Hamburg are followed by Nuremberg with 91.3 points and Düsseldorf with 90.9 points. Aachen ranks 10th with 85.5 points, entering the top 10 for the first time.

Overview of the leading cities in the sub-areas

Krefeld leads the Administration section with an improvement of 7 points. This is followed by Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Cologne. Stuttgart leads the Energy and Environment division, followed by Aachen, Braunschweig, Nuremberg and Ulm. Hamburg, Munich, Osnabrück, Bochumand Frankfurt am Main are the top five in the IT and Communication sector. Hamburg also leads the field of Mobility, followed by Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Leipzig. The section Society and Education is headed by Darmstadt, followed by Leipzig, Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

Smart City Index as an online application

The index is accessible as an interactive map with various filtering options on a website. There, users can track the development of the rankings for the 83 major German cities, along with the results for the sub-categories, based on previous Smart City Indexes dating back to 2019.

The ranking of the 83 major German cities, including the results across all sub-categories, is available as an interactive online map at www.smart-city-index.de.