If you care about how cities work — and how to make them work better — the Cities Engine is built for you. It brings 11,422 cities from around the world into one place, describes each with more than 200 metrics, and connects them to the organisations doing real work on the ground. You don't need to be a data scientist to use it. This is the five-minute tour.
What it is
Think of the Cities Engine as an atlas with a brain. The atlas part is a searchable, interactive map of the world's cities, each with a profile covering its people, economy, environment, urban form, governance, waste and risks. The brain part is a set of tools that lets you compare cities, rank them, and simply ask questions in plain language.
Who it's for
It's for the people who make cities better: local leaders and city staff, the non-profits and community groups working street by street, funders deciding where to invest, and researchers looking for patterns. The whole idea is that a good solution proven in one city shouldn't stay stuck there — the platform helps practical ideas find context, and travel to the next place that needs them.
Three things to try first
1. Explore a city on the map. Pick a city and open its profile. You'll see a clear snapshot — population, economy, environmental indicators, risk — and can switch between themed views to focus on whatever matters to you today.
2. Compare and rank. Rather than reading one city at a time, you can line several up side by side, or ask for a leaderboard — the fastest-growing cities, the greenest, the highest or lowest on a given measure. It's the quickest way to see where a city stands among its peers.
3. Ask João. João is the platform's built-in assistant — a friendly guide who understands the data. Ask a question like “which large tropical cities have the highest waste per person?” and João will look it up, rank the answers, and even draw a chart for you. No filters to configure, no jargon required — just ask.
Where to go next
That's the essence of it: explore, compare, ask. When you're ready to go a little deeper, the feature tour walks through everything the dashboards can do — and if you're curious about how the whole thing was built, read how we built the Cities Engine.