The city of Seoul has topped a United Nations ranking of e-governments worldwide for the second straight year.

Seoul had the most points with 81.7, followed by New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and scored especially high in security and protection of personal data, administrative services and citizen participation.

A team led by the president of Sungkyunkwan University Graduate School of Governance in Seoul evaluated the online abilities of 100 city governments worldwide, in cooperation with the E-Government Institute of the State University of New Jersey of the United States.

Among 33 provincial governments in South Korea, North Gyeongsang Province took first and had more points than Shanghai, which finished third on the global list.

Twenty-nine of the 33 governments had point levels similar to those in the top ten.