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In the ranking of the “smartest city” in the world, Zurich has moved from second to third place. An interesting image emerges in the details.
Zurich remains one of the smartest cities in the world. That has to do with ETH, but also with the university hospital, which here are face to face.
Photo: Raisa Durandi
Zurich ranks third in the new ranking of the world’s smartest cities, this is the conclusion of the “Smart City Index” published on Thursday. The index, which is only published for the second time, is jointly published by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
A year ago, Zurich ranked second in the same ranking of cities, behind Singapore, which ranked first. The Swiss city has now been overthrown by Helsinki, while Singapore continues to rank first. Besides Zurich, only Geneva from Switzerland can be found in the study. The Rhone city is in seventh place and has fallen three places compared to last year. According to the study authors, the selection criteria for inclusion was the declared claim of a city as “Smart City”.
Fraumünster’s watch doesn’t always work properly, but Zurich managed to reach third place in the city’s ranking.
Photo: Reto Oeschger
The index is not based on data on the strengths or weaknesses of an individual city, but mainly on the perception of its residents. In each of the totals 109 cities represented in the ranking 120 randomly selected residents were asked where they see the highest priorities. On the other hand, they had to answer 36 questions about the infrastructure of their city in terms of health and safety, mobility, leisure opportunities, training and job development, as well as political structure.
Half of the questions were about the evaluation of these structures; the other half deals with the extent to which technical solutions are available to improve these areas. The responses were then converted into points and the index was created from them.
Statement on strengths and weaknesses
Detailed data make it clear that Zurich’s relative decline to third place in the ranking means little. The differences with the Finnish capital in the perception of its citizens are small in general and the weaknesses and strengths are similar.
Zurich scores particularly well and better than Helsinki, and even Singapore ranks first in the health and safety category. Zurich’s other unique strengths lie in its opportunities for political participation and opportunities for economic development.
In the latter case, however, Helsinki has overtaken Zurich. Compared to other cities, Limmatstadt’s weaknesses lie in the range of technological options to make life easier for citizens: one example is electronic exchange with authorities, another is the lack of applications to support road traffic.
Zurich residents surveyed for the study cite the lack of affordable housing as by far the city’s top priorities. About 75 percent of those surveyed responded accordingly. In second place were the traffic jams in the city with a participation of 63.5 percent.
Air pollution was only named third with less than 35 percent. But these problems are not unique to Zurich. Even in Singapore and Helsinki, which do better in the rankings, they are among the biggest concerns of residents.
