File photo of Doha Skyline used for representation
Doha, Qatar: The Qatari capital has climbed into the top tier of global smart cities in the 2025 edition of the IMD Smart City Index 2025, compiled annually by IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre, with Doha ranking 33rd among 146 cities worldwide.
The index, which rated Doha the third-highest ranked city in the region, assesses cities not just on their infrastructure or digital services, but also on how well those elements translate into everyday life: residents’ perceptions about health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities, and governance all feed into the score.
A 33rd-place finish puts Doha well ahead of most global cities and confirms the rapid improvements the city has made. This rise marks Doha’s continued trajectory of urban transformation — reinforcing its status as a rapidly modernising capital, striving to balance infrastructure expansion, technology adoption, and citizens’ quality of life.
It would be recalled that the fourth edition of Smart City Expo Doha organised by Fira de Barcelona, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), recently took place for two days within the Mobile World Congress 2025 Doha.
The event highlighted the vision for the future of urban environments and provided a global platform to exchange ideas, showcase cutting-edge solutions, and explore the future of city life through innovation and technology.
The 2025 Smart City Index evaluates two main dimensions including structures — the physical infrastructure: roads, public transport, buildings, utilities, services; and technology — the digital services available: governance, e-services, access to information, digital inclusion, and technological accessibility.
In both dimensions, survey respondents across five thematic areas—health & safety, mobility, activities, opportunities, and governance—evaluate the performance of their city.
To compute the scores, the IMD uses a three-year weighted average of residents’ survey responses (weights 3:2:1 for 2025, 2024, and 2023) to smooth possible year-to-year fluctuations and highlight structural trends.
The 2025 report highlights a major shared concern across many leading cities: housing affordability. In 110 out of 146 cities surveyed, residents flagged affordable housing — defined as rent less than or equal to 30% of average monthly income — as a major issue.
That suggests that even as urban development and digital services rise, housing remains a challenge — including for cities like Doha, where growth and modernisation have accelerated.
For Doha, the 33rd-place ranking likely reflects a confluence of factors: improvements in physical infrastructure, greater digitalisation of services, enhanced mobility and urban amenities, and growing resident satisfaction with aspects of urban living. That said, the housing affordability question — a global headache — remains a structural challenge in many smart cities.
The 2025 edition expanded its scope by adding six new cities: AlUla, Saudi Arabia; Astana, Kazakhstan; Caracas, Venezuela; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Manama, Bahrain; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The broader coverage brings additional perspectives on urban innovation and smart city development across diverse global contexts. According to Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre, cities are poised to play an increasingly important role in the emerging geopolitical order. He notes that in a fragmented global economy, major urban areas will be the centres of economic activity in the coming years, making their development and competitiveness crucial to regional and national success.
