Smart Cities are everywhere. What was a 'futuristic' term in the mid 2010s is now common place. The advancements of telecommunications and technology in recent years has resulted in every aspect of our lives being connected to some form of telecommunications, whether that is you health care, energy, retail or wearable tech. Smart cities aim to ensure a better quality of life, make things more sustainable and boost businesses. With more hyperscalers and disaggregated network organisations now part of the telecommunications industry, and with 6G on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how this affects the Smart Cities ability to innovate. Various ranking methodologies and bodies are used to rank the top Smart Cities. Here, we've accumulated rankings from several sources to present the top 10 Smart Cities in the world in no particular order.
1.) Singapore
2) Helsinki, Finland
3) Zurich, Switzerland
4) Oslo, Norway
5) Amsterdam, The Netherlands
6) New York, USA
7) Seoul, South Korea
8) Copenhagen, Denmark
9) Tokyo, Japan
10) Berlin, Germany
There are, of course, other major capital cities such as London and Paris whose respective Governments are investing heavily into IoT, AI and 5G. Just six years ago, it was predicted that $40 billion would be spent on smart-city technologies. However, that figures is predicted to be ten times by 2025 - $442 billion, according to news website, Verditct. That's a staggering amount and shows just how much Smart Cities are an important part of our lives and country's economies.
The World Bank predict that 70% of the entire global population will live in a city by 2050! Given that prediction, the idea of so many people living in such close proximity is a prospect much easier to envision if most cities are moving towards being truly connected.