A recent study ranked 95 cities around the world based on how “smart” they are. The results are in, and San Francisco has nabbed the #3 position behind Atlanta and Boston, mostly due to its achievements in green infrastructure.
In order to evaluate the “smartest cities” in the world, ProptechOS measured 95 cities across 17 metrics for 2025. The metrics were broken into three categories: technological infrastructure and connectivity, green infrastructure, and the tech job market. More on that below.
Read on to learn about what made SF stand out!
How “smart” is the Bay Area?
San Francisco’s green credentials include a variety of high scores on environmental metrics, including its high number and density of EV charging stations and LEED-certified green buildings. These achievements, combined with innovations in connectivity and infrastructure, as well as a strong tech job market, helped SF rank above robust contenders including Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Seattle.
While other Bay Area cities didn’t achieve such a high ranking across the board, the study still acknowledged their impressive scores in individual categories and metrics. Oakland was named the best city in the country for tech jobs relative to its population size, at 889 per 10,000 people.
San Jose also saw some quiet success in the “Smart City” index at #10 overall. It achieved particularly high scores for its density of EV charging stations and a high number of companies dedicated to IoT (Internet of Things).
How did other cities match up?
The study names Atlanta as the #1 “smartest” city in the United States. While SF outranked it for green infrastructure, Atlanta still took the top spot for its high scores in internet download and upload speeds, high numbers IoT and AI companies, and high numbers of tech jobs.
Boston came in second, also lauded for its achievements in the tech job market and the “connectivity and infrastructure” category.
While the study ranked large U.S. cities against each other, it also evaluated major European cities on the same metrics. Paris ranked #1 in Europe, followed by Stockholm and Amsterdam.
How were the cities evaluated?
ProptechOS evaluated 95 cities in 17 metrics across the following three categories, creating a weighted index to compare them all.
- Tech infrastructure and connectivity, with metrics including Mobile 5G download and upload speeds, the number of AI and IoT companies, and the number of airports
- Green infrastructure, with metrics including air quality, hectares of tree loss/gain, the number of EV charging points, and the number of LEED-certified buildings
- Tech job market, based on the number of tech jobs advertised
Learn more about the study’s findings at the ProptechOS website.