Nicosia has been included for the first time in the smart cities index report but scored low marks ranking 117 from 141 competitors, according to the IMD Smart City Index 2023 https://imd.cld.bz/IMD-Smart-City-Index-Report-20231/28/.
Cyprus’ divided capital received a CC grade for the Structures pillar and a C for Technologies.
From a list of 15 indicators of priority areas, the biggest was road congestion (67.2%), followed by affordable housing (51.3%) and corruption, security both has 45.4%.
Cypriots were least worried about social mobility 8.4% and basic amenities 11.8%.
Nicosia Municipality said that notable points from the research include the high priority given to road congestion.
In the Structures pillar of the Health & Safety category, 69.5% of citizens consider the coverage of sanitation needs in the poorest areas significant, and 47.1% consider recycling services important. Public safety follows at 48.3%.
Only 13% said traffic congestion is not a problem in the Mobility sector, and 15.3% thought public transportation satisfactory.
Zurich was one of six cities classed as “super-champions”, having shown continuous improvement or year-upon-year stability.
Produced by the Smart City Observatory, the index seeks to discover how technology enables cities to achieve a higher quality of life for their inhabitants.
Oslo and Canberra followed Zurich.
The index is produced by The Smart City Observatory, which is part of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre.
It combines data and resident survey responses to show how much cities use technology to address challenges and improve quality of life.
Across 141 cities, a total of 20,000 people were surveyed about 15 aspects of living in their cities, what issues they believe are most urgent, and their feelings on technology-related issues such as using personal data and facial recognition.
This year’s index includes city-level data from the Global Data Lab’s Human Development Index (HDI), which measures life expectancy, expected years of schooling and the mean years of education completed, and the per capita income of a city’s citizens. Previously, country-level data was used.
Life expectancy in Zurich is 84, and residents rate affordable housing, road congestion, unemployment and air quality as their main priorities.
Some 80% said public transport was satisfactory, and 71% think finding information about local government decisions is easy.
For Nicosia, life expectancy was 81.2%, and just 15.1% said air pollution was a priority.
