Germany has a new ‘smartest’ city: Stuttgart has overtaken Munich at the top of the Smart City Index. Stuttgart is thus the third city, alongside Hamburg, to have topped the digital ranking of German cities since the first edition seven years ago. Stuttgart scored 92.8 out of a possible 100 points, ahead of Munich (92.0 points) and Hamburg (91.5 points). Next come Nuremberg (91.3 points), which has climbed four places, and Düsseldorf (90.9 points). Aachen (85.5 points) is a new entry in the top 10, having risen six places to 10th position, whilst Heidelberg (84.7 points, 13th place) has dropped out of the leading group . Stuttgart’s success is based on broad-based digitalisation: the capital of Baden-Württemberg is the only one of the 83 major cities surveyed to rank amongst the top ten in all five categories assessed: 1st place for energy and the environment, 3rd place for public administration, 6th place for IT and communication, 7th place for society and education, and 8th place for mobility. These are the findings of the Smart City Index, published this year for the eighth time by the digital industry association Bitkom. “Stuttgart leads the Smart City Index because it tackles digitalisation across the board and is the only major city to deliver in all areas: in public administration as well as in mobility, energy, infrastructure and education,” says Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst. “Munich and Hamburg remain on the podium. They have also made further progress with digitalisation and are pioneers in many areas.”

Overall, the race at the top is becoming ever tighter: there is a gap of 1.3 points between first and third place, compared with 2.2 points last year. And the standard continues to rise: a score of 85.5 points was required for a top-10 placing this year, compared with 84.7 points last year and 76.6 points in 2023. Germany’s major cities achieved an average of 73.8 points in the Smart City Index this year, up from 70.8 last year.

The biggest leaps forward this year have been made by cities in the middle of the table. Erlangen (69.7 points) has climbed 19 places to 56th position. This is primarily down to the administration, where the city has climbed 43 places to 29th position. In Erlangen, 100 per cent of the OZG services surveyed are now available digitally; the Citizens’ and Business Services Office has a mandatory digital appointment booking system; and Erlangen achieved full marks for internal processes and payment procedures. Hildesheim (68.8 points) has also improved by 19 places to 60th. Among other things, e-files, document management and artificial intelligence are in use across all departments, alongside digital heating planning and a significantly expanded charging infrastructure.

Mönchengladbach (84.8 points) has moved up 18 places to 12th position, entering the top 20 for the first time. In the mobility category, the city has climbed 24 places, partly due to AI-based traffic control, a digital traffic sign register and Wi-Fi on public transport. In the society and education category, it ranks third. Neuss (75.5 points) has also improved by 18 places to 38th, whilst Gütersloh (64.7 points) has climbed 16 places to 64th. And Bremen (78.9 points) continues its upward trajectory: up 13 places to 29th – rising from 71st to 29th within two years. This is also the best ranking Bremen has achieved in the Smart City Index to date.

Conversely, there are also cities that have fallen significantly. Paderborn (71.6 points) has dropped 16 places and now ranks 52nd; Heilbronn (71.3 points, 53rd) and Koblenz (69.0 points, 59th) have each dropped the same number of places. Dresden (78.8 points) has slipped twelve places to 30th; in 2023, the city on the Elbe was still in the top 10 at 6th place. Darmstadt (79.0 points) has dropped eleven places to 28th, although the city tops the Society and Education category; in the Administration category, it has fallen by 34 places. Bringing up the rear in the ranking is Remscheid (47.3 points) in 83rd place, preceded by Salzgitter (52.9 points) in 82nd place. “In many town halls, digitalisation has made the leap from project work to a permanent task. But that also means: if you ease off the accelerator even slightly for a year, you’ll fall behind,” says Wintergerst. “Cities that fall behind are generally no less digital than before – it’s just that the others have overtaken them.”

A look at the individual categories shows that strengths are widely distributed. In the administration category, Nuremberg and Krefeld share first place, each with the full score of 100. In the energy and environment category, Stuttgart leads with 87.7 points; in IT and communication, Hamburg tops the table with 96.0 points; in mobility, Hamburg again takes the top spot with the maximum score of 100; and in society and education, Darmstadt comes out on top with 98.8 points. Particularly striking: Krefeld shares first place in the administration category, yet ranks only 45th in the overall standings. And Darmstadt wins the society and education category, but ultimately finishes only 28th.

Other cities also perform significantly better in individual areas than in the overall ranking: Osnabrück comes third in IT and Communication (overall: 24th), Braunschweig comes third in Energy and Environment (overall: 23rd), Berlin comes fourth in Mobility (overall: 33), Kiel comes seventh in IT and Communication (overall: 40) and Gelsenkirchen comes eighth in the same category (overall: 46). Magdeburg has climbed 40 places to 12th in Society and Education, whilst the city ranks 73rd in the overall standings.

“The Smart City Index shows that many cities perform really well in individual areas, even if this isn’t enough for a top ranking when viewed as a whole. These strengths do not arise by chance; they are the result of clear priorities and the work of many committed people within the local authorities,” said Wintergerst. “This makes it all the more important to learn from one another and to ensure that exemplary solutions are recognised beyond the boundaries of the individual city.”

Two examples from the Best Practice Collection, which Bitkom is publishing online again this year, illustrate how this can work. Dortmund, for instance, has established a comprehensive climate monitoring network with 76 stations across the entire city, which records heat stress and visualises the data via an interactive dashboard. This enables heat events to be detected earlier and allows neighbourhoods particularly affected to be specifically identified. Solingen, for its part, is closing a gap in crisis communication with its SMARTKRIS pilot project: existing warning apps primarily provide information on the start and end of a crisis situation. In future, the questions in between are also to be answered – with location-specific information, contact persons and helpline numbers for local residents.

However, good examples alone are not enough. Many of them have emerged from time-limited funding programmes, foremost among them the Federal Ministry of Building’s ‘Smart Cities’ pilot projects. These are now coming to an end. Bitkom is therefore calling for the achievements to be safeguarded and expanded, rather than allowed to lapse. This requires a nationally standardised digital basic infrastructure that is permanently funded, independent of individual funding programmes. Smart city solutions must also be taken into account from the outset in the development of the Deutschland-Stack, so that existing systems can be integrated via open standards. Furthermore, local authorities should in future be able to source tried-and-tested solutions via an expanded marketplace, in line with the principle of ‘develop less, conduct more procurement’, supported by a central advisory service for selection, implementation and operation. Furthermore, there is a need for public procurement law that is more conducive to innovation, so that local authorities can collaborate more easily with start-ups. “Cities have demonstrated that they want to and can digitise. The federal government should continue to support cities in their efforts,” says Wintergerst. “A city that manages its energy networks, civil protection and traffic control digitally is not simply more modern than others; it is more capable of taking action and more resilient in the event of a crisis.”

Among the federal states, there has been a shift this year that runs counter to the result at the top of the table: Bavaria has replaced Baden-Württemberg as the strongest federal state – even though Munich had to cede the top spot to Stuttgart. Bavaria’s major cities score an average of 79.9 points (previous year: 75.1 points), putting them ahead of Baden-Württemberg with 78.9 points (previous year: 78.2 points). Next come Hesse with 74.1 points (72.7), Lower Saxony with 73.6 points (68.6) and Saxony with 73.4 points (74.5). Saxony is thus the only one of these states to have lost points compared with the previous year, slipping from third to fifth place. Rhineland-Palatinate, with 72.5 points (69.6), and North Rhine-Westphalia, with 72.1 points (68.5), perform below average, although North Rhine-Westphalia is catching up significantly compared with the previous year. However, the number of cities included in the ranking varies considerably between the federal states. For example, there are 30 major cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, compared with just 5 in Rhineland-Palatinate. No conclusions can be drawn for federal states with fewer than three major cities.

State capitals (79.3 points on average), cities with universities of excellence (79.7 points) and the federally funded ‘Smart Cities’ pilot projects (76.2 points) perform better than the average for all cities (73.8 points). The difference between large and smaller cities remains clearly evident. Cities with a population of one million or more achieve an average of 87.5 points (previous year: 85.8 points), whilst cities with between 500,000 and 999,999 inhabitants score 84.5 points (81.0). At the lower end of the scale are cities with between 100,000 and 149,999 inhabitants, scoring 66.8 points – though they have seen the strongest growth, up 4.4 points (previous year: 62.4 points). The gap between the smallest and largest cities has thus narrowed from 23.4 to 20.7 points. “Size helps, but smaller cities can also go digital. The smallest major cities are catching up the fastest this year, and with Erlangen, Hildesheim and Gütersloh, three of them feature among the most dynamic climbers,” says Wintergerst.

A total of 14,442 data points were collected, verified and validated for the Smart City Index – 913 more than in the previous year. All 83 German cities with a population of 100,000 or more were analysed and assessed. The study examined five key areas: administration, IT and communication, energy and the environment, mobility, and society and education. These five areas are broken down into 39 indicators (+2 compared with 2025), which in turn consist of a total of 174 parameters (+11 compared with 2025) – ranging from online citizen services, through shared mobility schemes and environmental sensor technology, to broadband availability and digital training for teachers and administrative staff. Local authorities were actively involved in the data collection process. The cities were able to provide data on digitalisation, each time citing their sources. As in the previous year, all cities took advantage of this opportunity, meaning the response rate once again stands at 100 per cent. The data was subsequently reviewed and validated by a team of experts from Bitkom. The Smart City Index is supported by Visa, Bentley Systems and PwC Germany.

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

The digital transformation of cities, regions and public authorities is also the focus of the Smart Country Convention, Germany’s leading event for the digitalisation of the public sector. From 13 to 15 October 2026, more than 23,000 experts from the fields of public administration, politics, business and academia will gather at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. The focus will be on state modernisation, the digitalisation of public administration, artificial intelligence, digital participation, digital sovereignty, cyber security and, this year, resilience in the event of a crisis. For the first time, the Smart Country Convention is dedicating a separate ‘Resilience Day’ to this topic on 15 October. The Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernisation is acting as patron of the SCCON, whilst Portugal is the partner country for 2026. Further information is available at www.smartcountry.berlin.

Note on methodology: The study covered all German cities with a population of 100,000 or more (as at 31 December 2024). The index values are based on verifiable information provided by the local authorities or publicly available data sources. All cities were given the opportunity to provide the data themselves and to cite the relevant sources. All cities took advantage of this opportunity. The 39 indicators are calculated from 174 parameters per city and a total of 14,442 data points. All indicators were standardised, i.e. converted to a scale of 0 to 100.

The Smart Country Convention is the leading event for the digital state and public services. With over 23,000 participants, SCCON is the meeting place for everyone involved in the digitalisation of the public sector. The combination of congress, workshops, expo and networking is aimed at employees from administration, politics, the digital economy, associations and science. SCCON is organised by Bitkom e.V. and Messe Berlin.

You can also find this press release on the Internet: www.smartcountry.berlin

Press photos of the Smart Country Convention in printable quality can be downloaded here. Videos about the event and the topics of the Smart Country Convention can be found here.