The 2026 IMD Smart City Index assesses the perceptions of residents on issues related to the structures and technology applications available to them in their city.

This edition of the SCI ranks 148 cities worldwide by capturing the perceptions of some 120 residents in each city. The final score for each city is computed by using the perceptions of the last three years of the survey, with the weight of 3:2:1 for 2025:2024:2023.

There are two pillars for which perceptions from residents are solicited: the Structures pillar, referring to the existing infrastructure of the cities, and the Technology pillar, describing the technological provisions and services available to the inhabitants.

Each pillar is evaluated over five key areas: health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities, and governance.

The cities are distributed into four groups based on the Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI) score of the country they are part of.

Within each HDI group, cities are assigned a ‘rating scale’ (AAA to D) based on the perceptions-score of a given city compared to the scores of all other cities within the same group. For group 1 (highest HDI quartile), scale AAA–AA–A–BBB– BB. For group 2 (second HDI quartile), scale A–BBB– BB–B– CCC. For group 3 (third HDI quartile), scale BB–B– CCC–CC–C. For group 4 (lowest HDI quartile), scale CCC–CC–C–D.

Rankings are then presented in two formats:

• an overall ranking (1 to 148)

• a rating for each pillar and overall (AAA to D)