The 2025 ProptechOS Smart City Index analyses 95 global cities, including the 50 largest cities by population in the US and 45 major cities across Europe.
Paris and Atlanta have claimed the top spots in Europe and the US, respectively, in the 2025 Smart City Index, compiled by real estate technology specialist ProptechOS.
In Europe, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Munich and Lisbon round out the top five, while in the US, Boston, San Francisco, Washington and Chicago account for the top five positions.
Smart cities criteria
ProptechOS measures the cities against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) stringent criteria for smart cities to spot emerging trends and directions in the market.
The 2025 study has expanded to analyse 95 cities, including the 50 largest cities by population in the US and 45 major cities across Europe, all with comparable data. Each city received a score out of 100 for overall performance in each category. The company examined 17 equally weighted indicators across three key categories:
- Tech infrastructure and connectivity
- Green infrastructure and sustainability
- Tech job market.
European smart cities
With consistently high scores across all three core categories of the index, Paris is ranked the smartest city in Europe for the second consecutive year.
Within the tech infrastructure and connectivity category, it scores 79 out of 100, with only Stockholm and Oslo ranking higher. The French capital has the second-highest number of Internet of Things (IoT) companies (148) and the second-highest number of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, with 666 headquartered there.
Stockholm, home of ProptechOS, earns its position among Europe’s smartest cities with impressive technological infrastructure. In the analysis, the Swedish capital boasts the highest upload speed of any European city at 42 megabytes per second and the sixth-highest download speed (283mbps), demonstrating its exceptional digital connectivity.
London continues to demonstrate strong technological leadership in 2025. The British capital boasts the most companies in Europe dedicated to AI (2,233) and the IoT (483), cementing its status as a major hub for cutting-edge technology development.
Rotterdam emerged this year ahead of its fellow Dutch city Amsterdam to be named Europe’s best smart city for sustainability. Ranking second behind Amsterdam on its rate of electric vehicle (EV) chargers per 100,000 people (73), it is also the fifth-best city for its level of air pollution. Its tree loss over more than two decades is the 11th lowest for any European city analysed – equivalent to 76 hectares – while it has created an additional 333 hectares of tree coverage over a similar period.
Second-placed Paris also performs well on keeping its tree loss to a minimum – losing just nine hectares since 2001, while adding more than 220 hectares in a boost to the city’s longer-term green credentials.
When it comes to tech job markets the German cities took a commanding lead with Cologne ranked number one, followed by Frankfurt and Munich. There are 16,166 tech jobs advertised in Cologne, equivalent to 168 per 100,000 residents. In recent years, it has been credited with having the third-highest startup density in Germany after Berlin and Munich and a tech ecosystem that doubled in value on either side of the Covid-19 pandemic.
US smart cities
Home to an impressive density of tech companies, ProptechOS said Atlanta stands out for its robust digital infrastructure (88 out of 100). The city boasts the fourth-highest internet download and upload speeds among major US cities, ranking third in IoT companies and fifth in AI companies per capita, reflecting its status as a hub of technological innovation.
Atlanta is also a prime destination for tech professionals, with 643 tech jobs advertised per 10,000 people, the seventh-highest rate in America. These factors illustrate Atlanta’s dynamic approach to fostering technological advancement, positioning it at the forefront of a smart city future.
The city’s superior mobile 5G performance and technological density have propelled it past traditional tech powerhouses. Boston follows closely, with the Massachusetts city hosting the third-highest rate of AI companies in the US (384 per 100,000 people).
San Francisco ranks as the greenest smart city in the US. It boasts the eighth-highest number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and density of charging points among American cities. Furthermore, the city has the eighth-highest LEED-certified green buildings (1,510), demonstrating its commitment to sustainable construction. Washington DC takes second place with an impressive 3,065 LEED-certified buildings.
Oakland outperforms all neighbouring Californian cities this year for offering the greatest choice of tech jobs relative to its population size – scoring 98 out of 100 in this category. While containing one of the smallest resident populations in the analysis, Oakland boasts an impressive 889 tech jobs per 10,000 people, enough to cover the equivalent of 10 per cent of its population.
“Our 2025 smart city list identifies cities that excel in combining advanced technological infrastructure, sustainability, and tech-driven employment opportunities,” said Dr Erik Wallin, founder and chief ecosystem officer at ProptechOS. “These leading cities aren’t just adopting smart technologies – they’re leveraging them to create more sustainable, connected, and economically dynamic places to live and work.”
This year, ProptechOS partnered with Ookla to incorporate its Speedtest Intelligence data, providing high-quality mobile 5G performance metrics, including download, upload, and latency speeds. This collaboration has significantly enhanced the ranking’s connectivity assessment with median annual measurements from 2024, drawn from a sample size in the millions.
“Ookla’s global testing infrastructure allows us to measure mobile 5G connectivity in cities with precision,” said Bryan Darr, vice president, government affairs at Ookla. “The metrics we’ve provided for the connectivity dimension offer a reflection of how next-generation mobile infrastructure performs across these environments, adding a technical perspective to this evaluation.”
The company reports this year’s index features several methodological enhancements, including refined metrics and expanded data sources. It means the 2025 results are a standalone assessment rather than a continuation of previous indexes. ProptechOS said the improvements allow for a more accurate and comprehensive evaluation of smart city development. Each metric was standardised and scored on a scale of 0 to 100 to ensure comparability across different data points. The analysis was conducted in March 2025.
The full ProptechOS ranking can be viewed here.
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 08.05.2025
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