// CITY_ASSESSMENT
How smart is Preston?
Preston, United Kingdom, scores 67% against the UN ISO-aligned smart city framework in 2026 — ranked #53 of 386 cities assessed, with every finding traceable to a public source.
Smart score
67%
Rank
#53 / 386
Criteria present
50 / 86
Evidence coverage
76.7%
Preston's smart city score by area
11 present · 0 partial · 0 absent · 4 not assessed
4 present · 3 partial · 0 absent · 5 not assessed
5 present · 4 partial · 2 absent · 2 not assessed
6 present · 4 partial · 0 absent · 1 not assessed
9 present · 2 partial · 0 absent · 2 not assessed
6 present · 1 partial · 0 absent · 1 not assessed
9 present · 2 partial · 1 absent · 2 not assessed
Where Preston is strong
- ▸Digital Government Services
- ▸Health & Digital Health
- ▸Culture, Tourism & Recreation
- ▸Critical Infrastructure Resilience
- ▸Water & Sanitation
Where the gaps are
- ▸Active & Shared Mobility
- ▸Climate Action & Emissions
- ▸Governance & Smart-City Operating Model
- ▸Climate Adaptation & Heat
Evidence highlights
Open Data & Transparency · Official open data portal
The Bus Open Data Service, an official UK government portal, provides open data for bus services across England, including Preston, publishing machine-readable datasets.
https://data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk/Open Data & Transparency · High-value datasets published
The Bus Open Data Service publishes high-value transport datasets, including bus timetable, vehicle location, and fares data for every local bus service in England, which covers Preston.
https://data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk/Open Data & Transparency · Programmatic API access
The Bus Open Data Service provides programmatic API access to its datasets, allowing users to experiment with interactive API services for bus data relevant to Preston.
https://data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk/Digital Government Services · Unified online services portal
Preston City Council operates a website with sections to 'Apply', 'Pay', 'Report', 'Request', and 'Renew' for various municipal services, including planning permission, council tax, garden waste collection, and reporting issues like missed bins or rat probl…
https://www.preston.gov.uk/About this assessment
Preston 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.