Tunis Climbs in Smart City Ranking, but Big Urban Challenges Remain

Tunis has moved up four places in the IMD Smart City Index 2025, ranking 142nd out of 146 cities, compared with 146th in 2024.

The improvement marks a modest step forward for Tunisia’s capital, but the city remains near the bottom of the global ranking. Tunis received an overall D rating, reflecting persistent challenges in mobility, governance, the environment and digital infrastructure.

The IMD Smart City Index shows that Africa’s presence in the ranking is gradually expanding, rising from six cities in 2019 to nine in 2026. These include Tunis, Rabat, Cairo, Cape Town, Algiers, Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi and Accra. However, no African city has entered the global top 100 across the index’s seven editions.

African cities generally score better on technology than on structural factors such as governance, institutions and public services. Yet the study notes that these structural foundations are what most strongly determine the performance of a “smart city.”

The best-performing African cities, including Rabat and Abuja, have focused on governance, digital public services, citizen participation and policy alignment. Others, such as Cairo, Lagos and Nairobi, continue to face structural constraints despite technology investments.

For Tunis, residents’ main concerns remain the cost of living, unemployment, housing, security and the quality of public services. At the same time, citizens are increasingly expecting digital solutions that can improve transport, administrative procedures, healthcare and urban management.

Despite its low ranking, Tunisia has several assets that could help accelerate its smart-city transformation, including a young and connected population, a developing digital ecosystem, a strategic geographic location and strong potential for targeted investment in infrastructure, innovation and digital governance.