MOSCOW, 11 December 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey devoted to smart cities.

Modern technologies in urban space

Russians are poorly acquainted with the concept of a smart city: in total, every third Russian (33%) is somewhat aware of the smart city concept, including those who are well informed (2%).

A typical Russian who can describe a smart city in detail is a man (38% vs. 28% women), who has higher or incomplete higher education (40%), with a good or average income (37% and 33% respectively), living in Moscow or St Petersburg (44%). Residence area plays a crucial role; respondents living in metropolitan areas are more likely to be aware of the smart city concept compared to the general across the country (+11 p.p.). Generation is less important: tech-savvy Zoomers know about smart cities just slightly more than the other age groups (39% vs. 32-35%), outpacing only the oldest generation –Thaw generation (77+) – in terms of awareness levels (19%).  

Two-thirds of respondents learned about the smart city concept in the course of the October survey conducted by VCIOM (66%); 71% of the residents of small cities (under 100 thousand inhabitants) and 75% of rural area report similarly.

Not only technologies

A low awareness level is also a reason for a high percentage of those undecided when asked about the characteristics of a smart city (44%). The analysis of informative answers allows for the conclusion that the interpretation of a smart city goes beyond a narrow definition: “smart” is not only technological.

A vast majority of respondents shared their definition of a smart city (56%). It is more likely a city with a developed infrastructure and beautification (31% of answers), including schools, kindergarten/construction (13%), available education (5%), comfortable living (5%) et etc. Respondents are less likely to mention technologies (22%), such as AI (7%), video surveillance (4%), automatization/robotization (3%). Other integral parts of a smart city are a developed transport infrastructure (14%), a developed economy (9% of answers including jobs, control over prices, developed production sector, high income, etc.), smart administration, leadership, supervision, regulations (8% of answers), social support and health services (6%) and finally educated and cultured people (6%).

Demand for smart services

As to specific smart services, Russians primarily point out smart housing utilities systems that enable effective resource management (34%), as well as transport flow tracking systems (32%). A quarter of respondents strengthen the importance of environmental monitoring systems (28%) and state electronic services (24%). Every fifth respondent say that the main feature of smart cities is video surveillance systems in public areas (20%). The smallest number of respondents point out the opportunity to participate in social life remotely (5%). A further 24% think that all the above-mentioned services should be developed.

Smart city is …

To track the success of the city’s digital transformation an IQ Index was designed; IQ Index is calculated for 200 cities that participate in the project conducted by the Ministry of Construction. Based on the 2023 findings, the top largest cities include Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan. These cities were also chosen by respondents (42%, 27% and 11%, respectively). A further 5% mentioned Novosibirsk; 4%, Yekaterinburg; 2%, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladivostok, Krasnodar, Ufa (each). Thirty-six percent of respondents remained undecided.

Fairy-tale city, dream city?

Slightly less than half of Russians say they would like to live in a smart city (44%); and every seventh reports to be living in such a city (14%). A quarter of respondents do not get attracted to such cities (25%); a further 4% are not happy with urban life at all.

Those who say they live in a smart city are mainly residents of Moscow and St Petersburg (34%). Residents of cities with a population of under 100 thousand inhabitants can only dream about it (50-58% would like to live in a smart city). Rural area residents are more likely than others to be unwilling to live in smart cities with a high IQ (47% vs 31% of those who would like to live in a smart city).

Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted November 24, 2024. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 24 November, 2024: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7628; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0183; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0897. Calculations are based on corporate standard https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.