Icityrank 2024, the 'full digital' cities are eight: the smartest municipalities from Bergamo to Venice

Once again in this edition of the Icityrank, the assessment of cities was divided into three dimensions (based on 39 indicators built on about 200 variables) the 'digital administrations' dimension, which measures the digitisation of administrative activity, including websites, the use of online services and the adoption of national platforms; the 'open municipalities' dimension, which photographs the level of use of social media, the dissemination of open data and the usability of apps; and finally the 'connected cities' where the digital transformation crosses urban services with the spread of connection networks, sensors and connectable devices (internet of things), and data analysis.

From the score levels achieved in the three ratings, in addition to the eight fully digital cities (the only ones to exceed the 'threshold' score of 75/100 in the three indices), a group of 30 'highly digitised' cities emerges, among which 8 (Brescia, Cagliari, Parma, Perugia, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Turin, Trento) are very close to full digitisation, with a score above 75/100 in two indexes and one above 50/100 in the remaining one, and 22 others (Bari, Bolzano, Cesena, Cuneo, Cremona, Ferrara, La Spezia, Livorno, Lodi, Messina, Monza, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Pisa, Piacenza, Pescara, Prato, Siena, Verona and Vicenza) that are nevertheless close to achieving this result.

Then there are 42 'transition' cities, which have started to adopt digital technologies and show results that tend to grow, but with very differentiated situations in the individual dimensions. Then come 21 'hybrid' cities, in which traditional and digital elements coexist, with a score above 50/100 in only one dimension. And finally 7 cities still in the 'start-up' phase of digital transformation - Avellino, Crotone, Enna, Foggia, Isernia, L'Aquila, Rieti - lagging behind in one or more dimensions.

"This year's ICity Rank shows an improvement in the digital transformation of the capital municipalities, with growth in all three indices, especially evident in the 'Digital Administrations' dimension, thanks to the boost of the first implementations of the PNRR projects," explains Gianni Dominici, Fpa's CEO. "The challenge now shifts to creating new creative and open mechanisms to involve all urban actors in innovation in the perspective of 'responsive cities', cities capable of using the wealth of information, communication tools and processing capacity to improve participatory and decision-making processes.

This year's results show an increase in the average scores of the 108 municipalities in all three indices, but not to the same extent. The most evident is in the Digital Administrations dimension, where the average value rises by a good 8 points, from 60/100 to 68/100. But it is also significant in Connected Cities, where the average score rises by 4 points (from 56/100 to 60/100). It is more moderate in the Open Municipalities dimension where it is only 2 points (from 50/100 to 54/100).

"Cities play a key role in driving and accelerating the country's digital transformation, and capital cities are proving to be places for experimentation and grounding innovation," says Massimo Arioli, CEO of Digital360. In recent years, our country's capitals have acquired important technological equipment, applying it to existing services and functions. Today, in the new scenario facilitated by artificial intelligence, they have the opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their services and imagine new ones for their citizens, accelerating the training of our civil servants and the transformation of the country".

The narrowing of the gaps between North and South and between centres of different sizes is not homogeneous. The gaps narrow in the ranking on Digital Administrations, while the differences in the other two indices remain marked.

In general, all large cities (with a population of over 250,000 inhabitants) are in the top bands. As many as six of the eight full digital cities are metropolitan realities, namely Florence, Milan, Bologna, Genoa, Venice and Rome. But alongside the largest, a group of innovative medium-sized cities is confirmed, led by Bergamo and Modena among the innovation leaders, to which is added a patrol of 6 close to digital maturity: Brescia, Parma, Perugia, Reggio Emilia, Rimini and Trento. On the other hand, smaller cities are the ones that often register the greatest increases in scores.

The positioning of southern cities improves, although none are in the group of innovation leaders (full digital). Among the cities with high levels of digitalisation are Cagliari, now very close to the leading group, but also Bari, Messina, Naples, Palermo and Pescara. Among the cities in an intermediate position (in transition) are Caltanissetta, Catania, Lecce, Matera, Nuoro, Oristano, Ragusa, Reggio Calabria, Salerno, Sassari, Siracusa and Taranto.