Smart City Index
The digital maturity of Romania's cities: 42 municipalities assessed on 7 objective indicators, with scores based on public data and an open methodology.
Smart City Index Romania is a public ranking and benchmark for Romanian municipalities, administered by the Romanian Association for Smart City (ARSC). It measures the digital maturity of local administrations through objective, verifiable and reproducible indicators: it does not assess intentions or plans, but the reality that can be documented at the time of data collection. The 2026 edition covers 42 municipalities - the 41 county-seat municipalities plus the Municipality of Bucharest - with data collected in April 2026. The index is built on three principles: objectivity (data comes from public sources, not from self-assessment), transparency (the methodology is published in full and can be audited) and comparability (the same time window and the same calculation rules for all municipalities).
Key numbers
What this project does
- 7 indicators with public weights: Open Data 15%, Digital Services 20%, Infrastructure 15%, Smart City Investment 20%, Transparency 15%, IT Procurement 10%, Civic Participation 5%
- Data sources stated explicitly for each indicator: data.gov.ro, web research and city hall websites, ANCOM 2023, the ARSC Smart City Map (map.arsc.ro), Funky Citizens 2024, sicap.ai, e-consultare.gov.ro
- 5 of the 7 indicators use directly verifiable public sources; Digital Services and Transparency include an assessment component
- Ranking, a profile for each municipality with detailed indicators and recommendations, a comparison between two municipalities and CSV export of the raw data
- Any score can be verified and challenged: local administrations can submit observations and corrective data with verifiable sources
How it works
- 1
Automated collection
Data from structured public sources is collected and checked in an annual work cycle, with the possibility of interim updates when official sources change significantly.
- 2
Manual verification
Indicators that cannot be fully standardised through automated collection are verified manually by the ARSC team, with documentation for each municipality and explicit notes on the limits of the data.
- 3
Normalisation and calculation
Raw values are converted into 0-100 scores using documented rules for each indicator; the final score is the weighted average of the 7 indicators.
- 4
Challenge period
Before official publication, local administrations can submit observations and corrective data with verifiable sources. ARSC reviews each request and updates the scores when the evidence justifies the change.
- 5
Publication and archiving
The index is published annually, and ARSC will keep and publicly archive previous editions for longitudinal comparison. Raw data can be exported in CSV format from the public interface.
Certification levels
- Advanced Complete digital services, systematically published open data, sustained investment and modern infrastructure 70-100
- In development Visible progress and ongoing initiatives, but digitalisation is not complete 50-69
- Emerging First steps in digitalisation: limited online services, insufficient public data 30-49
- Initial No significant documented digital initiatives 0-29
Context
Audience
- Local administrations
- Decision-makers
- Institutional partners
- Investors
- The public interested in urban digital transformation
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