The Fastest-Growing Cities for Data Center Connectivity (As of Q1 2025)

In November, we unveiled our new Market Connectivity Score (MCS) and dropped our first public rankings of the top ten most connected and fastest-growing cities in the world.

Because we update the MCS quarterly, it's time to see how those rankings have changed.

Let’s start with the fastest-growing cities for near-future connectivity infrastructure growth. 👇

Fastest Growing* Cities, Q1 2025

1. Kuala Lumpur | 43.5 (-2.8)
2. Singapore | 40.9
3. Frankfurt | 36.1
4. Auckland | 35.6 (+0.1)
5. Jakarta 🔼 | 28.3 (+2.0) 
6. Bangkok 🔽 | 27.9
7. Manila | 25.9
8. Taipei | 25.6 (-0.1)
9. Athens 🔼 | 24.8 (+1.6)
10. Washington, DC 🔽 | 24.2

Although Kuala Lumpur remains in the lead, it lost more than half of its 5.4 point lead over Singapore, dropping from 46.3 to 43.5.

Meanwhile, two sets of cities have traded spots on this list since Q4. Jakarta gained 2.0 points to take the fifth spot from Bangkok, and Athens gained 1.6 points to overtake Washington, DC.

Auckland and Taipei’s minuscule changes (+0.1 and -0.1, respectively) did not tip the scales in either direction, but are worth noting.

Similarly, nearly all the cities on the most connected list dropped 0.1-0.3 points this quarter—except for London and Paris, which remained the same. However, all ten cities kept their original order from Q4.

Most Connected Cities, Q1 2025

1. Frankfurt | 61.6 (-0.3)
2. London | 61.1
3. Tokyo | 59.8 (-0.2)
4. Amsterdam | 54.9 (-0.2)
5. Singapore | 54.4 (-0.1)
6. New York | 52.1 (-0.3)
7. Washington, DC | 51.8 (-0.1)
8. Paris | 51.3
9. Hong Kong | 49.7 (-0.1)
10. Los Angeles | 47.8 (-0.3)

How Do We Calculate These Scores?

The Market Connectivity Score brings together dozens of different data sets, clustered into nine groupings:

• Data Centers
• Internet Exchanges
• Pricing
• Cloud Infrastructure
• Long-Distance Transport
• Local Access
• Power
• Geography & Demographics
• Regulations & Governance

The full, interactive MCS tool—available to our Data Center Research Service subscribers—measures current and potential data center size for 3,000 cities worldwide, scored on a scale of 0-100 in each category.

This episode of our podcast, TeleGeography Explains the Internet, explains how (and why!) we developed the MCS in more detail 🎧 

Seeing this after Q1 2025?
View our latest Market Connectivity Score rankings over here.