Countries with the fastest internet in the world – ranked

The countries with the fastest internet in the world have been announced for the year. Read our insights from the study and browse the rankings below

10th December 2020

If you’re one of the millions of people working in a remote job or pursuing a career as a digital nomad, then internet speed is one of the important factors in your choice of destination.

Internet comparison site Cable has ranked the countries with the fastest broadband internet in the world based on over 557 million speed tests across 221 countries or territories.

It is the third year of the assessment and the latest ranking uses data collected in the 12 months up to 30th June 2020 to evaluate internet speed by country.

• Global internet speeds during lockdown – ranked

10 Countries with the fastest internet

Liechtenstein has the fastest broadband in the world with an average speed of 229.98Mbps. Many would argue that having the fastest internet, means having the best internet in the world.

1. Liechtenstein
2. Andorra
3. Iceland
4. Switzerland
5. Hong Kong (SAR)
6. Monaco
7. Hungary
8. Netherlands
9. Aruba
10. Malta

10 Countries with the slowest internet

South Sudan has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.58Mbps.

1. South Sudan
2. Yemen
3. Turkmenistan
4. Equatorial Guinea
5. Syria
6. Timor-Leste
7. Tajikistan
8. Ethiopia
9. Somalia
10. Sudan

“While global broadband speeds continue to trend upward, the truth is faster countries are the ones lifting the average, pulling away at speed and leaving the slowest to stagnate.”

Dan Howdle, Cable

Key headlines

• The global average broadband internet speed is 24.83Mbps (megabits per second).
• Liechtenstein has the fastest broadband in the world overtaking Taiwan with an average speed of 229.98Mbps.
• South Sudan has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.58Mbps.
• It would take nearly 20 hours to download a 5GB movie file in South Sudan while someone in Liechtenstein could do it in under three minutes.
• The five countries with the fastest internet have download speeds around 276 times faster than the five slowest.
• 32 of the 50 fastest countries are located in Europe, with seven in Asia, seven in the Caribbean, two in North America and two in the Middle East.
• By contrast, 32 of the 50 slowest-performing countries are located in Africa.
• 109 countries have average speeds below 10Mbps, a speed deemed by UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom to be the minimum required to cope with the demands of a typical family or small business.

The internet is getting faster, but…

The average global internet speed is getting faster with the global average increasing by around 20%. This takes into account changes M-Lab has made to their measurement platform.

However, it is worth noting that the countries contributing the most to this rise are those in developed nations which already have established infrastructure and can therefore roll out the latest technology available.

Comparatively, there is little development – and therefore little change in availability, rollout and uptake of faster infrastructure – in the bottom half of the ranking compared with the top half.

Generally speaking, the countries with the fastest internet speeds are likely to be smaller and more developed. The larger and less developed a nation is, the slower the internet will likely be.

Region by region

Unsurprisingly, Europe has the world’s highest concentration of countries with the fastest internet. Eight of the top ten countries with the fastest internet are in Europe. Liechtenstein has the fastest broadband in Europe and the world an average speed of 229.98Mbps.

Andorra (2), Iceland (3) and Switzerland (4) are not far behind with average speeds of 213.41, 116.88 and 110.45Mbps respectively. The UK is in 40th place with average speed of 37.82Mbps.

Hover over a country above to bring up its speed data

In Asia, Hong Kong (5), Singapore (14), Taiwan (27), Japan (28) and South Korea (36) are the continent’s top performers with speeds of 105.32, 72.75, 54.77, 54.62, and 40.81Mbps respectively.

The US (16) has the fastest broadband in the Americas with an average speed of 71.3Mbps. Canada (29) is the region’s second-fastest with 52.60Mbps. Generally, Caribbean countries perform well with Aruba the region’s fastest internet with an average speed of 89.81Mbps.

Uruguay (59) has the fastest broadband in South America at 22.16Mbps, while Venezuela (180) has the slowest at 1.61Mbps.

Sub-Saharan Africa is some distance behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband provision. 48 countries in the region were assessed, with 45 of them in the lowest 50% of countries in the table. Madagascar is the fastest African nation in 65th place with an average speed of 18Mbps.

“Europe absolutely dominates the leaderboard once again thanks to largely excellent infrastructure. In all cases, those countries ranking highest are those with a strong focus on pure fibre (FTTP) networks, with those countries dawdling too much on FTTC and ADSL solutions slipping further down year-on-year.”

Dan Howdle, Cable

In the Middle East, the fastest countries were UAE (46), Israel (50) and Qatar (57) with 28.33, 26.49 and 23.98Mbps respectively. The slowest were Lebanon (168), Syria (190) and Yemen (193) with 2.34, 0.76 and 0.65Mbps.

Countries with the fastest internet in Europe

1. Liechtenstein (1)
2. Andorra (2)
3. Iceland (3)
4. Switzerland (4)
5. Monaco (6)
6. Hungary (7)
7. Netherlands (8)
8. Malta (10)
9. Denmark (11)
10. Sweden (12)

Countries with the fastest internet in Asia

1. Hong Kong (5)
2. Singapore (14)
3. Taiwan (27)
4. Japan (28)
5. South Korea (36)
6. Thailand (44)
7. Russia (54)
8. Sri Lanka (60)
9. Macau (SAR) (78)
10. India (82)

Complete rankings

The table below ranks countries by their average download speed in megabits per second (Mbps) and the typical download time (DT) for a 5GB movie.

Some countries and territories have been excluded due to insufficient sample sizes.

Position	Country	Mbps	5GB DT
1	Liechtenstein	229.98	0h 02m 58s
2	Andorra	213.41	0h 03m 12s
3	Iceland	116.88	0h 05m 50s
4	Switzerland	110.45	0h 06m 11s
5	Hong Kong (SAR)	105.32	0h 06m 29s
6	Monaco	104.98	0h 06m 30s
7	Hungary	99.74	0h 06m 51s
8	Netherlands	95.60	0h 07m 08s
9	Aruba	89.81	0h 07m 36s
10	Malta	87.36	0h 07m 49s
11	Denmark	85.03	0h 08m 02s
12	Sweden	81.29	0h 08m 24s
13	Bermuda	73.60	0h 09m 17s
14	Singapore	72.75	0h 09m 23s
15	Slovakia	72.26	0h 09m 27s
16	USA	71.30	0h 09m 34s
17	Estonia	70.90	0h 09m 38s
18	Norway	67.31	0h 10m 08s
19	New Zealand	66.66	0h 10m 14s
20	Belgium	66.49	0h 10m 16s
21	Slovenia	65.46	0h 10m 26s
22	Romania	61.08	0h 11m 11s
23	Barbados	56.90	0h 12m 00s
24	Lithuania	56.63	0h 12m 03s
25	Spain	55.84	0h 12m 14s
26	Poland	55.40	0h 12m 19s
27	Taiwan	54.77	0h 12m 28s
28	Japan	54.62	0h 12m 30s
29	Canada	52.60	0h 12m 59s
30	Latvia	52.32	0h 13m 03s
31	France	51.33	0h 13m 18s
32	Malaysia	46.82	0h 14m 35s
33	Bulgaria	46.22	0h 14m 46s
34	Finland	44.05	0h 15m 30s
35	Germany	42.33	0h 16m 08s
36	South Korea	40.81	0h 16m 44s
37	Grenada	38.64	0h 17m 40s
38	Bahamas	38.14	0h 17m 54s
39	Portugal	37.99	0h 17m 58s
40	UK	37.82	0h 18m 03s
41	Panama	36.55	0h 18m 41s
42	Ireland	34.87	0h 19m 35s
43	Croatia	33.82	0h 20m 11s
44	Thailand	30.61	0h 22m 18s
45	Trinidad & Tobago	29.70	0h 22m 59s
46	UAE	28.33	0h 24m 06s
47	Czech Rep.	28.12	0h 24m 16s
48	Austria	27.74	0h 24m 36s
49	Moldova	27.48	0h 24m 50s
50	Israel	26.49	0h 25m 46s
51	Greece	26.01	0h 26m 15s
52	Australia	25.65	0h 26m 37s
53	Montenegro	25.07	0h 27m 14s
54	Russia	24.98	0h 27m 20s
55	Serbia	24.74	0h 27m 36s
56	San Marino	24.26	0h 28m 08s
57	Qatar	23.98	0h 28m 28s
58	Italy	23.18	0h 29m 27s
59	Uruguay	22.16	0h 30m 48s
60	Sri Lanka	20.73	0h 32m 56s
61	Kosovo	20.3	0h 33m 37s
62	Jamaica	20.01	0h 34m 07s
63	Vatican City	19.12	0h 35m 43s
64	Greenland	18.65	0h 36m 36s
65	Madagascar	18.00	0h 37m 55s
66	Brazil	17.89	0h 38m 09s
67	Belize	16.57	0h 41m 11s
68	Paraguay	16.50	0h 41m 23s
69	Costa Rica	16.42	0h 41m 34s
70	St. Lucia	16.35	0h 41m 45s
71	Mexico	16.19	0h 42m 10s
72	Chile	16.10	0h 42m 24s
73	Belarus	16.08	0h 42m 27s
74	St. Vincent & Gren.	15.69	0h 43m 30s
75	Bosnia & Herz.	15.66	0h 43m 35s
76	Cyprus	15.62	0h 43m 42s
77	Ukraine	15.09	0h 45m 14s
78	Macau (SAR)	14.66	0h 46m 34s
79	Jordan	14.54	0h 46m 57s
80	South Africa	14.04	0h 48m 37s
81	Georgia	13.50	0h 50m 35s
82	India	13.46	0h 50m 44s
83	Vietnam	13.41	0h 50m 54s
84	Saudi Arabia	12.67	0h 53m 53s
85	Albania	12.36	0h 55m 15s
86	Oman	12.25	0h 55m 44s
87	Kuwait	12.06	0h 56m 37s
88	Armenia	11.86	0h 57m 33s
89	North Macedonia	11.48	0h 59m 27s
90	Bahrain	10.87	1h 02m 49s
91	Dominican Rep.	10.69	1h 03m 51s
92	Dominica	9.96	1h 08m 34s
93	Antigua & Barbuda	9.63	1h 10m 53s
94	Brunei	8.97	1h 16m 06s
95	Turkey	8.86	1h 17m 05s
96	Fiji	8.83	1h 17m 19s
97	Colombia	8.80	1h 17m 33s
98	Philippines	8.77	1h 17m 51s
99	Ecuador	8.48	1h 20m 29s
100	Kenya	8.2	1h 23m 15s
101	Peru	7.98	1h 25m 30s
102	Guatemala	7.61	1h 29m 44s
103	Lesotho	7.43	1h 31m 52s
104	Mauritius	7.28	1h 33m 44s
105	Indonesia	7.16	1h 35m 21s
106	St. Kitts & Nevis	7.11	1h 36m 03s
107	Myanmar	7.11	1h 36m 04s
108	Zimbabwe	6.92	1h 38m 36s
109	Liberia	6.83	1h 39m 56s
110	Nicaragua	6.65	1h 42m 40s
111	Cape Verde	6.64	1h 42m 53s
112	Morocco	6.55	1h 44m 17s
113	Argentina	6.20	1h 50m 04s
114	El Salvador	6.13	1h 51m 24s
115	Honduras	5.93	1h 55m 06s
116	Senegal	5.93	1h 55m 08s
117	Maldives	5.88	1h 56m 03s
118	French Guiana	5.80	1h 57m 46s
119	Haiti	5.75	1h 58m 40s
120	Tunisia	5.66	2h 00m 42s
121	Cote D'Ivoire	5.55	2h 03m 04s
122	Kyrgyzstan	5.47	2h 04m 51s
123	Ghana	5.46	2h 05m 04s
124	Mongolia	5.25	2h 09m 55s
125	Nepal	5.22	2h 10m 52s
126	Cambodia	5.21	2h 11m 07s
127	Uganda	5.16	2h 12m 24s
128	Bolivia	5.06	2h 14m 59s
129	Kazakhstan	5.01	2h 16m 15s
130	Azerbaijan	4.89	2h 19m 41s
131	Comoros	4.85	2h 20m 48s
132	Egypt	4.71	2h 24m 48s
133	Bhutan	4.62	2h 27m 49s
134	Tanzania	4.54	2h 30m 26s
135	Eswatini	4.51	2h 31m 15s
136	Iran	4.50	2h 31m 47s
137	Micronesia	4.49	2h 31m 58s
138	Laos	4.47	2h 32m 46s
139	Guyana	4.43	2h 33m 57s
140	Suriname	4.42	2h 34m 23s
141	Gabon	4.37	2h 36m 07s
142	French Polynesia	4.28	2h 39m 31s
143	Palau	4.24	2h 41m 06s
144	Burkina Faso	4.19	2h 42m 55s
145	Angola	4.15	2h 44m 18s
146	Malawi	4.07	2h 47m 47s
147	Burundi	4.04	2h 49m 11s
148	Togo	4.03	2h 49m 28s
149	Seychelles	3.96	2h 52m 29s
150	Namibia	3.91	2h 54m 41s
151	Sierra Leone	3.86	2h 56m 57s
152	Zambia	3.84	2h 57m 34s
153	Rwanda	3.8	2h 59m 52s
154	Mozambique	3.47	3h 16m 32s
155	Mali	3.45	3h 17m 44s
156	Nigeria	3.34	3h 24m 16s
157	Bangladesh	3.24	3h 31m 01s
158	Cuba	3.16	3h 36m 16s
159	Palestine	3.13	3h 38m 03s
160	Guinea	3.04	3h 44m 56s
161	Botswana	2.78	4h 05m 23s
162	Cameroon	2.78	4h 05m 55s
163	Niger	2.77	4h 06m 17s
164	Marshall Islands	2.75	4h 08m 08s
165	Iraq	2.69	4h 13m 48s
166	Papua New Guinea	2.67	4h 15m 19s
167	Libya	2.6	4h 22m 05s
168	Lebanon	2.34	4h 51m 32s
169	Chad	2.25	5h 03m 12s
170	Vanuatu	2.22	5h 06m 55s
171	Pakistan	2.14	5h 19m 18s
172	Uzbekistan	2.1	5h 24m 50s
173	China	2.09	5h 27m 25s
174	DR Congo	2.06	5h 31m 57s
175	Rep. of the Congo	2.00	5h 41m 20s
176	Sao Tome & Principe	1.99	5h 42m 37s
177	Algeria	1.83	6h 12m 30s
178	Benin	1.67	6h 47m 40s
179	Guinea-Bissau	1.61	7h 03m 04s
180	Venezuela	1.61	7h 03m 05s
181	Gambia	1.60	7h 07m 30s
182	Djibouti	1.50	7h 34m 50s
183	Mauritania	1.47	7h 44m 30s
184	Afghanistan	1.37	8h 17m 37s
185	Sudan	1.35	8h 24m 07s
186	Somalia	1.14	9h 56m 39s
187	Ethiopia	1.12	10h 10m 34s
188	Tajikistan	1.01	11h 16m 08s
189	Timor-Leste	0.89	12h 42m 52s
190	Syria	0.76	15h 00m 11s
191	Equatorial Guinea	0.75	15h 13m 09s
192	Turkmenistan	0.74	15h 25m 57s
193	Yemen	0.65	17h 23m 00s
194	South Sudan	0.58	19h 31m 00s

The full Worldwide Broadband Speed League from Cable can be downloaded here.

More rankings and articles can be found in our remote work area:

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► World’s most democratic countries

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