Stuttgart Ousts Munich as the Smartest Major City

September 10, 2026

Source: E & M powernews

Stuttgart tops the 2026 Smart City Index, ahead of Munich and Hamburg. The Swabian metropolis scores particularly well in the areas of energy and the environment.

Stuttgart tops the 2026 Smart City Index with 92.8 out of 100 points, ahead of Munich with 92.0 and Hamburg with 91.5 points. Stuttgart thus replaces Munich at the top of the ranking of 83 major German cities. The digital industry association Bitkom has now compiled the annual ranking for the eighth time. The occasion is the Smart Country Convention, which the association is organizing together with Messe Berlin in October.

Stuttgart is the only city among those surveyed to rank in the top ten in all five categories. The city ranks first in energy and the environment and third in public administration. It is followed by IT and communications at sixth place, society and education at seventh, and mobility at eighth.

“Stuttgart leads the Smart City Index because it takes a comprehensive approach to digitalization and is the only major city to deliver results across all areas: in public administration as well as in mobility, energy, infrastructure, and education,” Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst is quoted as saying in a press release. “Munich and Hamburg remain on the podium. They have also made progress in digitalization and are pioneers in many areas.”

The average score of the cities surveyed has risen. The 83 major cities achieved an average of 73.8 points, up from 70.8 points the previous year. A score of 85.5 points was required to rank among the top ten. In 2025, the threshold was 84.7 points, and in 2023, 76.6 points were sufficient.

Individual categories reveal different strengths

In some of the five categories examined, different cities take the lead. Nuremberg and Krefeld each scored 100 points in administration. Stuttgart leads in energy and the environment with 87.7 points. Hamburg leads in IT and communication with 96.0 points and in mobility with 100 points. Darmstadt tops the “Society and Education” category with 98.8 points. The results in the individual categories thus differ in some cases significantly from the overall ranking. Krefeld, for example, which shares first place in “Administration,” ranks 45th overall.

Osnabrück, Braunschweig, Berlin, Kiel, and Gelsenkirchen also achieve significantly better rankings in individual areas than in the overall ranking. Osnabrück ranks third in IT and Communication, and Braunschweig also ranks third in Energy and Environment. Berlin ranks fourth in mobility. Kiel ranks seventh in IT and communication, and Gelsenkirchen ranks eighth.

Bitkom cites Dortmund and Solingen as examples of municipal digitalization projects. Dortmund operates a climate monitoring network with 76 stations that records heat stress and displays the data via an interactive dashboard. Solingen is further developing digital crisis communication through the “SMARTKRIS” pilot project.

According to Bitkom, many such projects have emerged within the framework of temporary funding programs. The association is therefore calling for a permanently funded, nationally standardized digital infrastructure. In addition, Bitkom advocates for a marketplace through which municipalities can procure proven solutions.

Bavaria Ahead of Baden-Württemberg

At the state level, Bavaria ranks ahead of Baden-Württemberg this year. Bavaria’s major cities scored an average of 79.9 points, up from 75.1 points the previous year. Baden-Württemberg scored 78.9 points, up from 78.2 points.

Next are Hesse with 74.1 points, Lower Saxony with 73.6 points, and Saxony with 73.4 points. Saxony is thus the only one of these five states whose average score has fallen compared to the previous year. The state has dropped from third to fifth place.

Cities with at least one million residents average 87.5 points. Cities with 500,000 to 999,999 residents score 84.5 points. Cities with 100,000 to 149,999 residents scored 66.8 points. With an increase of 4.4 points compared to the previous year, they also recorded the strongest rise, according to the report.

According to Bitkom, 14,442 data points were collected for the Smart City Index—913 more than the previous year. All 83 German cities with at least 100,000 residents were evaluated. The index covers the categories of administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility, and society and education. The Smart Country Convention 2026 will take place from October 13 to 15, with a focus on the digitization of the public sector.

The ranking, including the results for each individual category, is available as an interactive application at smart-city-index.de.

Author: Manfred Fischer