// CITY_ASSESSMENT

How smart is Belfast?

Belfast, United Kingdom, scores 60% against the DC20 smart city framework in 2026 — ranked #75 of 213 cities assessed, with every finding traceable to a public source.

Smart score

60%

Rank

#75 / 213

Criteria present

42 / 82

Evidence coverage

67.1%

Belfast's smart city score by area

Data & Digital Foundation68%

10 present · 7 partial · 3 absent · 1 not assessed

Mobility43%

4 present · 4 partial · 6 absent · 2 not assessed

Environment & Resources85%

14 present · 1 partial · 2 absent

Governance & People75%

9 present · 0 partial · 3 absent · 8 not assessed

Economy & Method92%

5 present · 1 partial · 0 absent · 2 not assessed

Where Belfast is strong

  • Smart Energy & Buildings
  • Resilience & Climate Adaptation
  • Innovation Ecosystem
  • Open Data by Default
  • Pervasive IoT Sensing

Where the gaps are

  • City Data Platform / Urban Data Exchange
  • Integrated Multimodal Mobility (MaaS)
  • Smart Traffic & Adaptive Signals
  • Data Governance, Privacy & Ethics
  • Public Safety & Emergency Response

Evidence highlights

Open Data by Default · Official open data portal

Belfast City Council has an 'Open and Linked Data' page, and Belfast-related datasets are available on the Northern Ireland Open Data Portal.

https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/dataset?q=belfast

Open Data by Default · Open APIs / programmatic access

The Northern Ireland Open Data Portal, which includes Belfast data, offers programmatic access via APIs, such as the Translink Transport Information API.

https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/dataset/translink-transport-information-api

Open Data by Default · High-value dataset coverage

The Northern Ireland Open Data Portal provides high-value datasets relevant to Belfast, including transport information and water quality data.

https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/dataset?q=belfast

Interoperability & Open Standards · Open data standards

Belfast, as part of Northern Ireland, utilizes an open data portal (opendatani.gov.uk) which hosts datasets and APIs, and the UK government has published 'Open Standards Principles' that apply.

https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/dataset/translink-transport-information-api

About this assessment

Belfast was assessed against the 82 criteria of the DC20 smart city framework on 2026-07-01 by AI agents gathering evidence from official public sources. Each criterion is marked present, partial or absent, and every finding links to where it was found — see how smart cities are measured. Scores refresh continuously as cities publish new evidence.