There has been a change at the top of the Smart City Index 2026: Stuttgart has overtaken Munich as Germany’s most digital city. With 92.8 out of 100 points, the capital of Baden-Württemberg finishes just ahead of Munich on 92.0 points and Hamburg on 91.5 points. Nuremberg follows in fourth place, with Düsseldorf in fifth. Aachen is a new entry in the top 10.

Stuttgart’s top spot is down not to a single standout area, but to its breadth of performance. Stuttgart is the only one of the 83 major cities surveyed to rank among the top ten in all five categories: administration, IT and communication, energy and the environment, mobility, and society and education. In the energy and environment category, the city even takes first place.

At the same time, the gap at the top is narrowing. There are now just 1.3 points separating first and third place. The threshold for the top 10 is also rising: in 2023, 76.6 points were sufficient to make the cut, whereas by 2026, 85.5 points will be required. On average, German cities now score 73.8 points – three points more than in the previous year.

The most exciting climbers come from the mid-table

A look at the biggest leaps shows that digital development is by no means confined to the well-known major cities.

Erlangen and Hildesheim have each climbed 19 places. Erlangen scores particularly highly in digital administration: All OZG services surveyed are available digitally there, and the city also achieves full marks for internal processes and payment procedures. Hildesheim focuses, amongst other things, on e-files, document management, AI in local government departments, digital heating planning and an expanded charging infrastructure.

Mönchengladbach has also made a significant leap forward, climbing 18 places to twelfth position. Contributing factors include AI-based traffic management, a digital register of traffic signs and Wi-Fi on public transport. Bremen, meanwhile, has improved from 71st to 29th place within two years.

The index thus makes it clear: those who prioritise digitalisation in the long term can catch up significantly within a short space of time. Conversely, those who fail to keep pace quickly lose ground – even if their own city has not necessarily become any worse digitally.

Smart City’ does not mean the same thing everywhere

The ranking becomes particularly interesting when you look beyond the overall score.

In digital administration, Nuremberg and Krefeld share first place, each with 100 points. Hamburg leads the way in IT and communication, as well as in mobility. Stuttgart takes top spot in energy and the environment, whilst Darmstadt leads in society and education.

This reveals some genuine ‘hidden champions’: Krefeld tops the national rankings for administration, yet is only 45th in the overall ranking. Osnabrück comes third in IT and communication, even though the city ranks 24th overall. Berlin, meanwhile, comes fourth in mobility, but is only 33rd in the overall ranking.

This in particular offers an important insight for local authority digitalisation: not every city needs to develop every solution from scratch. Successful approaches can be highlighted, replicated and further developed elsewhere.

From climate sensors to crisis communication: exactly how smart cities make a difference

The best practices highlighted in the Smart City Index demonstrate what such solutions can look like.

Dortmund, for example, has set up a city-wide climate monitoring network comprising 76 stations. Data on heat stress is displayed via an interactive dashboard, enabling heat events to be detected earlier and particularly affected neighbourhoods to be specifically identified.

Solingen, on the other hand, is working on improving digital crisis communication through the SMARTKRIS pilot project. In addition to traditional warning messages, citizens will in future also receive location-specific information, contact details and helpline numbers during a crisis.

Such examples show that smart city solutions have long since extended far beyond digital citizen services. Traffic management, energy supply, climate resilience, education and disaster management are increasingly becoming part of a networked municipal infrastructure.

The next task: rolling out effective solutions on a wider scale

This, however, is precisely where the next challenge begins. Many successful smart city projects have emerged within the framework of time-limited funding programmes. The digital industry association Bitkom is therefore calling, amongst other things, for a permanently funded basic digital infrastructure, open standards and better opportunities for local authorities to procure tried-and-tested solutions, rather than constantly developing new, individual solutions. More innovation-friendly public procurement law is also intended to facilitate collaboration with start-ups.

The index also shows that such structures are particularly relevant for smaller cities: whilst cities with over a million inhabitants continue to achieve higher scores on average, the smaller cities with between 100,000 and 149,999 inhabitants will see the strongest growth by 2026. The gap between the largest and smallest cities is thus narrowing.

Smart City Index 2026: 83 cities, 14,442 data points

For the Smart City Index 2026, Bitkom analysed all 83 major German cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The analysis is based on 14,442 data points drawn from 39 indicators and 174 parameters. The areas assessed are administration, IT and communication, energy and the environment, mobility, and society and education.

The index thus provides not only a ranking but also an overview of where digital urban development in Germany is already working well today – and where other local authorities can build on this.

Smart Cities at the Smart Country Convention 2026

How successful solutions from individual cities can be rolled out more widely is one of the key questions at the Smart Country Convention 2026. 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 Centre.

Key topics will include the modernisation of the state, the digitalisation of public administration, artificial intelligence, digital sovereignty, cyber security and the resilience of the state and local authorities in the event of a crisis.