Helsinki is the smartest city in the world

Finland's Helsinki is the best City in the world for digital transport services and the best in Europe when it comes to smart city tourism.

A smart city means a city in which digital services make life fluent and climate-friendly.

Smart cities are compared globally in different kinds of rankings, in which Helsinki has managed to reach the top spots in 2018.

The City won in eight categories including: Best in smart tourism,  Best digital mobility services, Best place for foreign investments, Second best city for startups, The fifth best in smart city government, The best smart neighbourhood Kalasatama, The most locally connected startup ecosystem in the world and  Number one in social cohesion of smart cities.

Helsinki and Lyon claimed the first place in the European Capital of Smart Tourism Competition, which evaluated the cities in terms of accessibility, sustainable development of tourism, utilisation of digitalisation in tourist services, cultural heritage and innovation in the tourism offerings.

"Helsinki's vision is to be the most functional city in the world. The success in many comparisons shows that we are going in the right direction. The utilisation of digitalisation is a significant success factor for Helsinki. It brings better services to the city residents, supports the climate goals and creates new business opportunities for the companies,” said Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori.

On Best digital mobility services, Helsinki won the first place as the world's best city for services categorised as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).

Digital services like Whim reduce private motoring and offer a flexible means of transport to the city residents.

Helsinki is strongly promoting these goals, which is why it was ranked number one in Juniper Research's study.

Helsinki's smart city success is based on the city's intense co-operation with the companies, the science community and the residents.

For example, the city's innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki, and others that have played an important part.

Forum Virium with its innovation partners has made pioneering efforts like opening city data, the joint development of Smart Kalasatama and the smart traffic pilot projects.

"Open data, innovation and developing new services by testing are key factors to Helsinki's success. Thanks to these things, Helsinki is a desired co-operation partner in many joint projects in entire Europe," says City of Helsinki innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki's CEO Mika Malin.