Data Center Ecosystems Momentum Index

The Data Center Momentum Index is a comparative framework designed to evaluate how effectively different regions are emerging as centers of digital infrastructure. It blends four dimensions that together capture both current performance and future potential: Scale (the amount of built capacity and embedded infrastructure), Momentum (the speed and depth of recent investment and development pipelines), Quality (how well data centers are integrated into local communities, including land use compatibility, political support, and environmental alignment), and Future Trajectory and Opportunity (the degree of remaining headroom for growth given constraints like land, power, policy, and public acceptance). Taken together, the index is meant to distinguish between markets that are merely large, those that are growing quickly, and those that are truly durable, scalable, and sustainable over time.

Compared to the Momentum Index used in the New Cities Atlas, which focuses on comprehensive urban development, this version is narrower in scope but sharper in its emphasis on infrastructure-led growth. The New Cities framework evaluates places based on factors like population growth, economic diversification, governance, urban livability, and physical place-making. In contrast, the Data Center Momentum Index strips out most traditional urban metrics and replaces them with variables tied to energy systems, network effects, land absorption, and political feasibility. Where the New Cities Index asks whether a place is becoming a successful city, this index asks whether a place is becoming a successful platform for large-scale digital infrastructure. The overlap comes in areas like governance and long-term trajectory, but the divergence is intentional: one measures the success of human-centered urban systems, while the other measures the rise of a new kind of infrastructure urbanism shaping the digital economy.

Current Momentum Index for Data Center Districts and Clusters (inclusive only of the ones we have evaluated)

Data Center Cities — Standings