Our figure of the month 11/2020: Osnabrück in 8th place in the Smart City Ranking – what is the situation regarding ICT competence?

Only 2% with ICT profession in Osnabrück

Bitkom's Smart City Index for the year 2020 was recently published with the aim of showing how digital Germany's cities are. It includes 38 indicators from the areas of administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility and society. Pilot projects in which Smart City solutions are tested play a major role in the Index, for example city apps that control local traffic flows or support local retail e-commerce. Projects of this kind require a high level of ICT competence, and accordingly the cities that are in the top ten often have an above-average number of employees in ICT occupations (right column), as an evaluation of employment subject to social insurance contributions by GWS shows. In Munich (2nd place), just under 7% of employees have an ICT occupation, in Karlsruhe (5th place) almost 8% and in Heidelberg (10th place) almost one tenth. The nationwide average is 2.7%.

The city of Osnabrück ranks 8th in the Bitkom index with projects related to the digitization of administration and traffic. The fact that the city is using artificial intelligence for invoice distribution and is planning a platform for digital citizen participation has a positive impact. The high ranking is remarkable, because only just under 2% of the city's employees work in ICT professions, which leaves a lot of potential for the future. To this extent, Osnabrück will be dependent on purchased ICT expertise from outside, at least in part. In view of their digital competence, the remaining cities will find it much easier to rise to the position of Europe's Smart City beacons.

Other figures can be found here.