Worldwide Broadband Speed League 2018

Interactive map

Using the map

To properly explore the map you'll need to view it on a desktop computer. Sadly, the data mapping tool we use to create our interactive maps – Carto – doesn't play well with mobile. You can view it on mobile, but interaction is spotty at best.

Countries are colour-coded by average broadband speed measured. The darker the country, the higher the average speed. As you can see, this paints an interesting picture, with the majority of faster countries clustered around Europe, and most of the slowest countries on the African continent.

Hovering over an individual country will bring up its associated speed data. This includes country name, its ranking out of the 200 countries measured, its mean average download speed, how long it would take to download a 5GB HD movie using this average speed, the mean download speed measured across the previous 12-month period, and how many places – if any – the country has gained or lost in worldwide speed rank.

Why some countries are missing data

When it comes to internet provision, the situation varies both by country and region. Generally speaking though, you can apply the rule that the larger and less developed the nation is, the slower the internet access tends to be.

The economy of Singapore, for example, relies heavily on digital infrastructure, while the country itself occupies a relatively small space. There is economic necessity, coupled with the relative ease of delivering high-speed connections across a small area.

Conversely, the economy of Chad suffers from geographical remoteness, drought and political turmoil, with agriculture its chief industry. It is also vast. There is therefore arguably no pressing economic necessity for high-speed internet, while the difficulty of delivering it would almost certainly exceed Chad's GDP.

Although Chad is just one example, most of the countries not included in the study have issues preventing them from rolling out worthwhile digital infrastructure, and therefore failed to generate enough tests to provide a useful average. Countries excluded were: Bhutan, Central African republic, Chad, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Eritrea, Greenland, Lesotho, North Korea, Solomon Islands, Somalia and South Sudan.

Previous year's research

This is the second year running we have undertaken this research. The previous year's results are also available.

Broadband comparison services

Cable helps you quickly and easily compare broadband packages from the UK's leading broadband providers.

Highlights

Here is a quick look at some of the highlights unearthed in the study

#1. Singapore
A vibrant digital economy and diminutive landmass offer Singapore significant advantages when it comes to infrastructural development and FTTP (pure fibre) availability.
#2. Sweden
Sweden’s decision to focus on FTTP (pure fibre) means around 60% of Swedish homes and businesses now have access to speeds of up to 1Gbps (1,000Mbps).
#3. Denmark
FTTP (pure fibre) connections are available to more than half of Danish homes and businesses, providing extremely fast speeds and excellent future-proofing.
#4. Norway
The emerging narrative here: countries with a focus on FTTP are pulling far ahead. Norway is no exception, with FTTP available to over 40% of its population.

Global average broadband speed is rising

Tracking broadband speed measurements in 200 countries (189 countries last year) across multiple 12-month periods has allowed us to generate an overall average speed for the globe and to see how this number changes over time. The good news is that the global average speed is rising quickly.

The average global broadband speed measured during the period from 11 May 2016 to 10 May 2017 was 7.40Mbps. The average global broadband speed measured during the period from 30 May 2017 to 29 May 2018 was 9.10Mbps – a rise of 23%. That’s considerable.

However, it should be noted that those countries contributing the most to the rising average are those in developed nations which harbour not only already-faster established infrastructure, but in which we’re also seeing the most significant rollout and uptake of the latest technology. There is comparatively little development – and therefore little change in availability and/or uptake of faster infrastructure – in the bottom half of the league table compared to the top half.

The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening

Before you paint a picture that broadband provision is improving globally based on the 23% jump in average global speed year-on-year, consider that, on average, the top 100 countries in the table have gained 5.43Mbps while the bottom 100 in the table have gained by an average of only 0.41Mbps.

Of course, the top 100 have proportionately faster speeds to begin with, so we really need to look at the percentage increases to see what’s actually going on. Not including new entries, the top 100 countries have increased their average broadband speed by 29.04%. The bottom 100 countries have increased their average broadband speed by 24.22%.

Of course, the smaller the top and bottom chunk you measure this way, the more stark that difference becomes. If you take the top 25 versus the bottom 25, for example, the top 25 increased their speeds by an average of 28.88%, while the bottom 25 have gained only 7.40%. The gap is widening, with faster progress correlating with higher placement in the league table. Another way to look at this would be to say that the top 25 countries are responsible for 45.30% of the total growth, while the bottom 25 are responsible for an almost negligible 0.19% of the total growth.

The UK is slipping and will probably slip further

The top of the table is dominated by Europe, as is evident from even a quick glance at our interactive map. Of the top 50 countries, 36 of them are in Europe. Last year’s results placed the UK 31st in the world. This year the UK places 35th.

With the UK only just beginning to roll out FTTP (fibre to the premises), and with a number of other European countries already a long way ahead of the UK in this regard, it is likely it will slip more positions when we take these measurements next year, and that those ahead of the UK will increase their lead.

We’ve nearly tripled the sample size since last year’s report

Thanks to the increased proliferation of the M-Lab speed test tools, this year we were able to build our report from over 163 million individual speed tests in 200 countries, compared to the 63 million tests which formed last year’s data set. This has allowed us to include around a dozen countries that we were not able to include previously, due to the sample sizes being too low to produce a useful number.

Previous year's research

This is the second year running we have undertaken this research. The previous year's results are also available.

Regions

Africa
With its vast landmass and little in the way of a digital economy when taken as a continental whole, Africa is a long way behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband provision, relying primarily on wireless (WiMAX, 3G, 4G) connectivity rather than cables to cover its vast spaces.
Madagascar is the fastest African nation, clocking in at an average speed of 24.87Mbps, placing it 22nd globally. This is thanks to the underwater EASSy cable that supplies the island’s urban centres with respectable fibre broadband speeds. Most other African nations aren’t so lucky, with 7 out of the 38 included nations having to get by on average speeds of less than 1Mbps.
Arab States
All but two of the countries included in the Arab States region are in the bottom 100 results, while Yemen also has the honour of being the country with the lowest speed globally with an average speed of just 0.31Mbps – 0.04Mbps slower than last year’s measurement. In Yemen it would take 36hrs 52mins and 20secs to download a 5GB movie.
None of the countries in the Arab States region offer average speeds significantly above 5Mbps. Only Bahrain comes in above that threshold at 5.05Mbps, with UAE and Jordan following closely behind.
Asia and Pacific
This region is a mixed bag, offering some of the fastest countries in the world – Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand – and at the same time some of the slowest: Vanuatu, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and East Timor.
This should come as no great surprise. The region is vast and comprises 41 countries measured in this study. Singapore is number one in the world with an average speed of 60.39Mbps, with Japan not far behind in 12th place globally and with an average speed of 28.94Mbps, and Taiwan coming third in the region and 14th in the world with an average speed of 28.09Mbps.

Europe
Europe has the world’s highest concentration of countries with fast or very fast broadband. One glance at the map shows that almost all of Europe enjoys broadband speeds that are, in most cases, leading the rest of the world.
We measured 53 countries in the European region and all but one of them (Armenia) fall within the top 100 fastest. In fact, Europe makes up a staggering 36 of the top 50 fastest countries. Sweden is Europe’s fastest country, offering an average speed of 46.00Mbps. Armenia is Europe’s slowest, with an average speed just 3.94Mbps.
North America
This is a small category in terms of number of countries, with only three included: United States, Canada and Bermuda. However, these three cover a vast landmass. America also offers us by far the largest sample – a whopping 89 million speed tests from 15 million distinct IPs.
The United States has the fastest broadband in the North American region – no surprises there – with an average speed of 25.86Mbps. Bermuda is the slowest with an average speed of 19.48Mbps.
South/Latin America
Generally the South/Latin America region is at the slower end of the regional scale. Barbados is this region’s fastest country, with an average speed of 17.08Mbps, with Venezuela at the bottom of the regional table with average speeds of just 1.24Mbps.
Generally the countries in this region occupy the centre portion of the global league, with no South/Latin America country in the 20 fastest or 20 slowest.

Our comments

With average broadband speeds rising by 23% in just one year it would be easy to assume an overall positive global picture. However, a closer look reveals the acceleration is concentrated towards the top end: The faster countries are improving more quickly, with those towards the bottom end of the table verging on stagnation.
Europe, the United States and thriving economic centres in the Asia-Pacific region (Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong) are leading the world when it comes to the provision of fast, reliable broadband, which suggests a relationship between available bandwidth and economic health. Those countries leading the world should be congratulated, but we should also be conscious of those that are being left further and further behind.

It’s been very interesting looking at the data for a second year running, not least because we have three times as much of it this time around. It is, however, somewhat sad to see the UK not faring better.
A number of other countries have leapfrogged us since last year, including France and Madagascar. Compared to many other countries both in and out of Europe, the UK has simply come too late to a full fibre solution, relying instead on copper to cover the last mile. Despite plans to roll out full fibre to UK homes across the next decade or so, the UK is likely to fall even further behind while we wait.

"We're pleased to see the continued use of open internet measurement data in this research, which supports public understanding of global broadband development."

Resources

Downloadable versions of the data set (.xls), the original press release and the research methodology (.pdf)

League table
The full league table can be downloaded here and includes a comparison to last year's results.
DOWNLOAD
Press release
If you wish to see the original press release for this research, you can download it here as a PDF.
DOWNLOAD
Methodology
Our research methodology and notes on how to interpret speed data can be downloaded here as a PDF.
DOWNLOAD

Contact us

Dan Howdle
Consumer telecoms analyst
Twitter: @danhowdle
Email: dan@cable.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 7582 155 385
Mark Ashton
Head of Research and Development
Twitter: @cableuk_news
Email: mark@cable.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 1543 416 762

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Worldwide broadband speed league 2018

Interactive map

Using the map

Why some countries are missing data

Previous year's research

Broadband comparison services

Highlights

#1. Singapore

#2. Sweden

#3. Denmark

#4. Norway

Global average broadband speed is rising

The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening

The UK is slipping and will probably slip further

We’ve nearly tripled the sample size since last year’s report

Previous year's research

Regions

Africa

Arab States

Asia and Pacific

Europe

North America

South/Latin America

Our comments

Resources

League table

Press release

Methodology

Contact us

Dan Howdle

Mark Ashton

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