The Smart Centres Index 13

The thirteenth edition of the Smart Centres Index was published on 28 May 2026. SCI 13 rates the innovation and technology offerings of leading commercial centres, tracking their ability to create, develop, and deploy technology.

The SCI is a factor assessment index, combining a number of instrumental factors - data measures drawn from a range of data providers across the world - and assessments given by business and finance professionals of three dimensions related to innovation and technology in major commercial and financial centres:

• Innovation Support - the support provided by regulatory and other systems to innovation and technology in a centre.
• Creative Intensity - the intensity of technology and innovation services and opportunities in a centre.
• Delivery Capability - the quality of the technology and innovation work that is taking place in a centre.

133 commercial and financial centres were researched for SCI 13 of which 76 are included in the index. SCI 13 was compiled using 141 instrumental factors. These quantitative measures are provided by third parties including the World Bank, the OECD, and the United Nations.

The instrumental factors are combined with financial centre assessments provided by respondents to the SCI online questionnaire. SCI 13 uses 2,030 assessments provided by 364 respondents.

SCI 13 Results

• Singapore and New York rose in the rankings to take first and second place in the index, with London down from second to third position.
• Four Western European centres feature in the top 10, alongside three Asia/Pacific and two US and centres. Abu Dhabi in ninth place also features in the top 10.
• If respondents did not distinguish London from Cambridge and Oxford, we might consider Southeast England to be the dominant smart centre,
• Twelve centres rose 10 or more places in the ranking in SCI 13, while fourteen centres fell 10 or more places.
• The average rating in SCI 13 rose by 1.07%, building on a rise of 3.33% in SCI 12.
• The biggest increase in average ratings of 1.83% was in Latin America & The Caribbean, while the lowest increase in the average rating was for Eastern Europe & Central Asia, where ratings rose 0.49%.