The Fastest Internet in the World – Country Index 2019

With internet usage increasing day by day re-assessment of countries with the fastest internet was required. Below are our insights and new country rankings based on average speed in the country.

207 countries, 267+ million tests and millions of ISPs were all that Cable.co.uk required to compare and re-assess the global internet index. This is the third year that they have conducted the assessment, in this over 12 months of data is collected.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 11.03Mbps is the average broadband speed in the world.
• Taiwan overtook Singapore and now has the fastest internet speed in the world. Average internet speed in Taiwan is 85.02Mbps.
• The lowest internet speed was found to be 0.38Mbps in Yemen, making it the slowest in the world.
• To download a 5GB movie in Yemen it took over 30 hours, while in Taiwan it was just 8 minutes.
• Top five countries are 125 times faster in terms of download speed when compared to the slowest five countries.
• European countries claimed 37 spots in the top 50 countries while Asia Pacific region claimed 10 spots along with North America claiming 2 spots and the remaining one was claimed by Madagascar becoming the only country from Africa.
• Ofcom a UK based telecom watchdog said a minimum of 10Mbps is required for small business or a family of 4. 141 countries were found to be falling below this required speed.

WHO IS GETTING FASTER?

Yes, the internet is getting faster day by day. The global average speed is increased by 20.65% from 9.1Mbps in 2017 to 11.03Mbps in 2018.

However, the thing to note here is which are the countries that are contributing to this speed. The developed nations who already have the infrastructure ready with them, and with the base ready they are able to upgrade the technology with ease getting them faster internet speed.

Comparatively, the development is very slow or negligible in the countries which are in the bottom half of the list. Rolling out the upgraded technology is difficult as the base is only not ready yet, so there is a very less increase in the speed.

Our study shows that the smaller countries have the fastest internet in the world as they are more developed and coverage is less. Larger and less developed nations will continue to have slower speed unless they invest heavily on infrastructure keeping user base in mind. Like India is doing currently, taking a jump of 14 places.

BY REGION

It is not surprising that Europe has 37 countries listed in the top 50 countries with the fastest internet speed. The territory of Jersey was found to be the fastest in Europe, 67.64Mbps being its fastest speed. With an average speed of 55.18Mbps Sweden became Europe’s fastest country. 

Denmark with an average speed of 43.99Mbps took the fifth spot and Luxembourg not far behind claiming the seventh spot with an average speed 40.12Mbps. The only countries from the European region which could not find a place in the top 100 were Turkey and Armenia which were ranked 102 and 110 respectively.

The United Kingdom jumped a position claiming the 34th spot. With an average speed of 22.37Mbps, it got faster by 3.8Mbps compared to 2017.

INTERNET MAP

Below is the color-coded world map with average internet speed. A cluster of countries with the fastest internet speed can be seen in the European region, while the slowest countries form a cluster over the African continent.

Map courtesy Cable.co.uk

A mixed speed is observed in the Asia Pacific region. With countries like Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, and Hong Kong have some of the fastest internet speed. On the other hand, there are countries like Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan which have the slowest internet speed.

32.89 Mbps is the average speed of the United States making it the country with the fastest internet speed in the American continents. The US is 15th on the list. With an average speed of 16.12Mbps, the Cayman Islands is the fastest in the Latin American region. And with an average speed of 1.37Mbps Venezuela claims the 183rd spot on the list making it the slowest in the American region.

12 Arab countries are present in the bottom half of the list, of which 9 are in the Asia-Pacific region and the remaining three are in the Latin American region. The only Arab countries which are present in the top half of the list are the United Arab Emirates at 67th position and Bahrain at 94th position.

25 out of 50 slowest countries are present in the African continent making it the worst-performing continent in terms of internet speed. The only country to make it in the top 50 in Madagascar. South Africa at 75 and Kenya at 84 positions are the only other two countries which make it into the top 100 list.

Country wise Average internet speed