// CITY_ASSESSMENT

How smart is Leeds?

Leeds, United Kingdom, scores 83.8% against the UN ISO-aligned smart city framework in 2026 — ranked #5 of 386 cities assessed, with every finding traceable to a public source.

Smart score

83.8%

Rank

#5 / 386

Criteria present

68 / 86

Evidence coverage

88.4%

Leeds's smart city score by area

Data, Digital & Smart Foundation93%

13 present · 2 partial · 0 absent

Mobility & Transport100%

10 present · 0 partial · 0 absent · 2 not assessed

Environment, Energy & Climate92%

12 present · 0 partial · 1 absent

Infrastructure, Water & Waste91%

10 present · 0 partial · 1 absent

Health, Education, Safety & Inclusion88%

9 present · 3 partial · 0 absent · 1 not assessed

Economy, Innovation & Employment100%

6 present · 0 partial · 0 absent · 2 not assessed

Governance, Resilience & Operating Model86%

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

Where Leeds is strong

  • Open Data & Transparency
  • Digital Government Services
  • Urban Data Platform & Digital Twin
  • Public Transport & Real-Time Information
  • Energy & Smart Grid

Where the gaps are

  • Governance & Smart-City Operating Model
  • Air Quality & Monitoring
  • Housing & Urban Planning

Evidence highlights

Open Data & Transparency · Official open data portal

Leeds operates an official open data portal called 'Data Mill North' which publishes datasets from Leeds City Council, such as council spending and international travel records.

https://datamillnorth.org/dataset/council-spending

Open Data & Transparency · Clear open licensing

Leeds City Council explicitly states that its published data is covered by the Open Government Licence, with an attribution statement required for reuse.

https://www.leeds.gov.uk/opendata/terms-and-licences

Open Data & Transparency · High-value datasets published

Leeds publishes high-value datasets including council spending, bus open data (transport), live roadworks (transport), and environmental service requests.

https://datamillnorth.org/dataset/council-spending

Open Data & Transparency · Programmatic API access

Some datasets, such as bus open data and live roadworks, are available via documented APIs, not just file downloads.

https://datamillnorth.org/dataset/bus-open-data

About this assessment

Leeds was assessed against the 86 criteria of the UN ISO-aligned smart city framework on 2026-07-10 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. Scores refresh continuously as cities publish new evidence.