Darmstadt ranks 18th in the Bitkom Smart City Index
The digital association Bitkom analyzes 82 major German cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the five categories of administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility as well as society and education. The digital city of Darmstadt came 18th this year, compared to 16th place last year. With this ranking, it is still in first place in Hesse. “This ranking puts us in the top 20, which shows us that our motto ‘Keep at it’ has borne fruit and that digitalization is firmly established as an instrument for Darmstadt’s future. Now it’s time to keep an eye on the established Smart City topics and at the same time focus on the digitalization of administration,” says Holger Klötzner, Head of Digitalization. The Smart City Index is being published by the digital association Bitkom for the sixth time this year. The ranking is based on an analysis for which a total of 13,284 data points were recorded, checked and qualified. For each city, 162 parameters were examined – from online citizen services to sharing offers for mobility and intelligent traffic lights to broadband availability or digital skills for teachers or administrative staff.
Index values were calculated for each city in the five categories, from which the overall value and overall ranking were calculated.
“It’s positive to note that Darmstadt was able to achieve higher scores in four out of five areas compared to last year. This encourages us to continue expanding existing projects and addressing new topics in order to improve in all areas,” said Klötzner. In Energy and Environment, there was a slight increase in points, reaching 8th place (+1 place). In the Society and Education category, Darmstadt had already performed very well last year, achieving 6th place, and has now improved to 4th place. This means that Darmstadt has twice achieved top 10 positions in the ranking. Darmstadt also improved slightly in the Administration category, reaching 16th place (+1 place). In the IT and Communications and Mobility categories, Darmstadt ranks midfield: in IT and Communications, it ranks 46th (+9 places), and in the Mobility category, it ranks 40th (-8 places). The goal of the Smart City Index is to provide cities with a basis for comparison of their own digital activities, to highlight successful examples, and to support all cities in their digitalization efforts. “The rankings and indices collected are a measure of our efforts. But we don’t just want to work through parameters; we want to specifically look at the areas in which we can improve for Darmstadt. Therefore, we are taking our own paths to achieve our goals and act for the benefit of the citizens of Darmstadt,” says José David da Torre Suárez, Managing Director of Digitalstadt Darmstadt GmbH.
Darmstadt climbed to 6th place in Haselhorst Associates Consulting’s Smart City ranking
In Haselhorst Associates Consulting’s Smart City Ranking, Darmstadt improved three places compared to the previous year, climbing from 9th to 6th place. Darmstadt was rated with a Smart City grade of 44.5 percent (up from 41.1 percent in 2023). Haselhorst Associates Consulting has been annually reviewing the status of Smart City developments in Germany since 2018. According to the company, the proportion of cities involved in Smart City projects rose from 14 to 98 percent in 2024. The Smart City Ranking assesses all 409 listed cities based on ten areas: Smart City Strategy (Basic), Digital Infrastructure, Mobility, Energy & Environment, Buildings & Neighborhoods, Health, Education, Administration, Tourism, and Business & Trade. This includes examining the strategic and conceptual orientation of municipalities in the individual areas and the implementation status of specific projects. Haselhorst Associates Consulting examines over 400 cities in Germany, while the Bitkom Index only includes large cities in its ranking. Additional factors such as economic aspects (gross domestic product per capita, business registrations and trade tax revenue, as well as the revenue of municipal utilities) are also taken into account.
