Berlin, Germany, has been selected as the leading smart city in Europe in 2023, according to new data from Juniper Research.
Juniper ranked the top 50 world cities based on an evaluation of different smart city aspects such as transportation, infrastructure, energy and lighting, city management, internet of things (IoT) and urban connectivity.
Berlin was named as the top city due to its focus on improving its transit infrastructure such as with Jelbi, its mobility-as-a-service app, which unifies public and private transit in one app. Additionally, Berlin took proactive steps on shared micromobility and renewable energy generation.
The top 5 smart cities ranked by Juniper include:
- Berlin
- London
- Barcelona
- Rome
- Madrid
“Europe, as the birthplace of MaaS, has seen significant development and deployment of the concept over the past few years,” said Nick Maynard, researcher at Juniper. “As such, transit in leading European smart cities is a central part of future strategies for smart city development — cities aiming to follow this approach must take a coordinated method to transit; embracing the benefits of MaaS in reducing congestion.”
According to Juniper, smart cities are helping to drive CO2 emissions savings in Europe with deployments helping to reach 247 million metric tons (MMT) by 2028, up from 161 MMT this year. This is an increase of growth of 53% showing the progress smart cities are making over the next five years.
Juniper said reducing emissions is a key driver for smart city deployments as cost pressure have become prevalent in the European energy sector and governments are focusing on strategies enabling both cost reduction and renewable energy deployments like use of artificial intelligence and smart grid systems.