Helsinki was ranked the world’s second best smart city and Finland was ranked Europe’s second most innovative country in the 2020 smart city comparison.
1. The second best smart city in the world
The peak performance of 2020 was when Helsinki was ranked the world’s second best smart city in the IMD Smart City Index(Link leads to external service) survey. The survey is the world’s leading smart city comparison. Helsinki’s ranking improved immensely. In 2018, Helsinki was ranked eighth in the comparison. The title of the world’s best smart city was awarded to Singapore. After Helsinki, Zürich took third place, Auckland the fourth and Oslo the fifth.
2. Helsinki won the “Oscar” for smart city construction
The City of Helsinki won the main prize in the digital city series in the global Year in Infrastructure Conference(Link leads to external service). The conference has also been called the “Academy Awards” of urban construction and the infrastructure industry. The City of Helsinki nabbed the main prize with its Digital City Synergy project, in which the digital twin of Smart Kalasatama was one of the reasons for the win. A total of almost 400 cities and projects across the globe competed for the prize in different series.
3. Finland was ranked Europe’s second most innovative country
Finland was ranked the second most innovative country in all of Europe in the European Commission’s annual Innovation Scorecard(Link leads to external service). The highest ranking was awarded to Sweden. The other Nordic countries and the Netherlands were among the highest-rated countries.
4. Helsinki has the world’s second best working life balance
Helsinki has the world’s second best balance between work and leisure time, as indicated by the 2020 comparison by Kisi(Link leads to external service). The best balance is in Oslo, while Finland is followed by Copenhagen, Hamburg and Berlin.
5. Helsinki has the world’s fourth best startup ecosystem
Startup Genome’s report(Link leads to external service) indicates that Helsinki has the world’s fourth best ecosystem for startup companies. The report applauds the public sector for its good co-operation with startups.
In addition to these, Finland was named the world’s happiest country in the World Happiness Report(Link leads to external service) in 2020, for the third year in a row. According to the World Economic Forum’s comparison(Link leads to external service), Finland’s clean energy use potential is the world’s third highest. The European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index(Link leads to external service) indicates that Finland’s digital economy and society are at the highest level of development in Europe.