São Paulo hasn't led the ranking of Brazil's most connected cities since 2018. In 2019, Campinas took first place. In the most recent edition of the Connected Smart Cities Ranking, from 2025, first place belongs to Vitória, with a score of 61.27, ahead of Florianópolis, Niterói, São Paulo, and Curitiba.
What changed in the ranking, and why a direct comparison is misleading
In 2025 the survey changed its methodology. It began evaluating all 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, rather than a selection, and reorganized the score into 75 indicators spread across 13 axes, aligned with ISO standards and the Sustainable Development Goals.
This matters before drawing any conclusions: when the yardstick changes, a city's rise or fall may not mean anything about the city itself. Comparing 2019's position with 2025's is comparing two different measurements, not the evolution of the same place.
What makes a city appear in this kind of ranking
The axes that carry the most weight aren't the ones the word "connected" suggests. It isn't about the amount of fiber optics or antennas. It's the combination of:
- Economy and innovation: the presence of technology parks, incubators, tech companies opening, patent filings per capita.
- Governance: public services that work digitally, open data, processes that don't require an in-person visit.
- Mobility, health, education, and the environment: common urban indicators that pull the score down even in cities with a lot of technology.
That's what put Campinas in first place in 2019, with five technology parks and five incubators, and it's what sustains Florianópolis and Vitória today.
Decentralization is the data point that matters to those who sell
The useful takeaway from the ranking isn't which city won. It's that the map of demand for technology is no longer a map of Southeast capitals. Mid-sized cities in the interior of São Paulo state, the Florianópolis-Curitiba corridor, and smaller capitals like Vitória and Niterói concentrate tech companies, and therefore also concentrate the people who buy websites, software, automation, and digital experiences.
In practice, this changes two decisions. The first is where to look for clients: a digital services company in Campinas, Sorocaba, or São José dos Campos competes in a market with fewer competitors per square meter than in São Paulo. The second is how to show up: people searching for a technology provider rarely type in the city name, and still get results from their own region anyway — that's the logic of hyperlocalism, and it applies just as much to the bakery as to the factory.
Showing up in your region's search results is the work of SEO and digital marketing: a properly configured Google profile, a page for each service and each region served, and content that answers what customers in your city are actually asking.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the smartest city in Brazil?
In the 2025 edition of the Connected Smart Cities Ranking, first place goes to Vitória, in Espírito Santo, with a score of 61.27, followed by Florianópolis, Niterói, São Paulo, and Curitiba. Back in 2019, the leader was Campinas, which had knocked São Paulo off the top spot.
How is the Connected Smart Cities Ranking calculated?
Starting with the 2025 edition, the survey evaluates all 5,570 Brazilian municipalities using 75 indicators spread across 13 thematic pillars, aligned with ISO standards and the Sustainable Development Goals. These pillars range from economy, technology, and governance to mobility, health, education, and the environment.
Can I compare a city’s position across different editions of the ranking?
With some caution, yes. The methodology changed in 2025, when both the number of municipalities evaluated and the list of indicators were expanded. A city that climbed or dropped between 2019 and 2025 may simply reflect the new yardstick, not an actual change on the ground.
Why isn’t São Paulo Brazil’s most connected city?
Because the ranking measures far more than economic size and network infrastructure. Indicators like mobility, environment, safety, and governance all factor into the score, and that’s usually where a big metropolis loses ground to well-managed mid-sized cities.