Ranked: countries with the fastest internet in the world

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

Iceland has the fastest internet in the world, followed by the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macao, Liechtenstein, Denmark and Andorra. The USA is ranked 10th and the UK is 30th. Turkmenistan has the world’s slowest internet.

Internet comparison site Cable has ranked the countries with the fastest broadband internet in the world based on over 1.5 billion speed tests across over 200 countries and territories. It is the sixth year of the assessment and the latest ranking uses data collected in the 12 months up to 30 June 2024 to evaluate internet speed by country.

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. A slow connection affects not only your ability to work from home but also your entertainment options. While there are ways to speed up your internet, essentially, it comes down to the internet service provider (ISP) in your country.

Key headlines

• The global average broadband internet speed is 53.89 Mbps (megabits per second).
• Iceland has the fastest broadband in the world, with an average speed of 279.55 Mbps.
• Turkmenistan has the slowest broadband in the world, with an average speed of just 2.72 Mbps.
• Thirty-one of the 50 fastest countries are located in Europe, with six in Asia, nine in the Americas, three in the Middle East and one in Oceania.
• By contrast, 30 of the 50 slowest-performing countries are located in Africa.
• Thirty-five countries or territories have average speeds below 10 Mbps, 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 18.35% from 46.79 Mbps in 2022 to 55.38 Mbps in 2024.

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

Year	Mbps	Change: Mbps	Change: %
2024	55.38	8.59	18.35%
2023	46.79	7.41	30.04%
2022	35.98	6.19	20.78%
2021	29.79	4.96	19.98%
2020	24.83	13.8	125.11%
2019	11.03	1.89	20.68%
2018	9.14	1.73	23.35%
2017	7.41	–	–

Comparatively, there is far less development – and therefore less 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.

When it comes to the size of a nation, it is generally much easier to roll out FTTP full-fibre broadband and 5G mobile internet to a smaller population and/or across a smaller area.

Region by region

Unsurprisingly, Europe has the world’s highest concentration of countries with the fastest internet. Seven of the top 10 countries with the fastest internet are in Europe. Iceland has the fastest broadband in Europe and the world an average speed of 279.55 Mbps.

Liechtenstein (3), Denmark (4), Andorra (5), the Netherlands (6), and France (7) are not too far behind. The UK (30) has Europe’s 19th fastest internet with an average speed of 110.99 Mbps.

“The UK has lost some ground this past year against other Western European nations, and has on average slower broadband than the European average. Part of this has to do with relative speed of Full Fibre rollout across the UK. It continues apace, but we appear to be slower than some European rivals in this respect. Speedtest results however do not differentiate between differences in available speed versus take-up, so a slow descent in our European ranking here can also be a reflection of customers opting for slower speeds, or indeed superior marketing of Full Fibre deals on the part of our European neighbours.”

– Dan Howdle, Cable

In Asia, Macau (2) has the fastest internet, with South Korea (9), Japan (21), Hong Kong (22), Taiwan (23) and Singapore (24) all performing well.

The US (10) has the fastest broadband in the Americas with an average speed of 161.97 Mbps. Uruguay (12) is the region’s second-fastest, with Canada (15) and Chile (36) in third and fourth, respectively. Cuba (190) has the slowest internet in the Americas.

Africa is some distance behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband provision. Thirty-one of the 50 slowest countries in the world are located in Africa. South Africa (91) has the fastest internet in Africa, followed by Eswatini (97), Rwanda (102), Mauritius (103) and Botswana (105)

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Rank	Country	Mbps
1	Iceland	279.55
2	Macao	234.74
3	Liechtenstein	222.98
4	Denmark	210.51
5	Andorra	199.89
6	Netherlands	188.49
7	France	176.97
8	Monaco	173.79
9	South Korea	172.53
10	USA	161.97
11	Switzerland	161.88
12	Uruguay	156.99
13	Sweden	156.42
14	Israel	153.61
15	Canada	152.25
16	Spain	148.63
17	Slovakia	145.19
18	San Marino	143.20
19	Malta	141.07
20	Norway	140.56
21	Japan	139.53
22	Hong Kong	138.18
23	Taiwan	136.58
24	Singapore	134.43
25	Belgium	124.78

Rank	Country	Mbps
26	New Zealand	124.01
27	Portugal	116.91
28	Estonia	113.10
29	Hungary	112.15
30	UK	110.99
31	Lithuania	110.74
32	Romania	105.46
33	Poland	104.36
34	Ireland	102.96
35	Qatar	101.72
36	Chile	100.66
37	UAE	99.26
38	Barbados	97.27
39	Latvia	95.50
40	Finland	95.13
41	Brazil	92.83
42	Slovenia	90.40
43	Germany	87.77
44	Serbia	86.36
45	Malaysia	82.38
46	North Macedonia	79.09
47	Australia	77.99
48	Luxembourg	76.64
49	Czech Rep	74.41
50	Montenegro	73.93

Rank	County	Mbps
51	Moldova	73.84
52	Greece	72.54
53	Grenada	72.49
54	Italy	72.45
55	Bahamas	72.34
56	St Kitts & Nevis	71.96
57	Thailand	67.75
58	Bulgaria	67.47
59	Russia	67.43
60	Bahrain	67.16
61	Trinidad & Tobago	66.43
62	India	65.51
63	Austria	64.96
64	Peru	63.28
65	Brunei	62.61
66	Panama	62.43
67	Jamaica	62.13
68	Argentina	59.70
69	Kuwait	58.89
70	Oman	57.85
71	Saint Lucia	56.84
72	Colombia	53.87
73	Costa Rica	53.39
74	Kosovo	53.29
75	St Vinc & Gren	52.14

Rank	Country	Mbps
76	Philippines	52.07
77	Vatican City	51.60
78	Cyprus	51.53
79	Ukraine	49.39
80	Anguilla	49.23
81	Dominican Rep	48.05
82	Dominica	47.90
83	Montserrat	46.34
84	Vietnam	45.92
85	Belarus	45.81
86	Ecuador	45.54
87	Bosnia & Herz	45.51
88	Paraguay	45.10
89	Mexico	44.73
90	Jordan	42.46
91	South Africa	42.42
92	Belize	41.72
93	Croatia	38.52
94	Saudi Arabia	37.65
95	China	37.56
96	Guatemala	37.34
97	Eswatini	37.23
98	El Salvador	35.90
99	Nicaragua	33.85
100	Antigua & Barbuda	32.98

Rank	Country	Mbps
101	Turkey	32.89
102	Rwanda	32.69
103	Mauritius	31.12
104	Albania	29.87
105	Botswana	29.52
106	Guyana	28.57
107	Nigeria	27.62
108	Maldives	27.26
109	Marshall Islands	26.84
110	Armenia	26.78
111	Nepal	25.97
112	Palestine	25.20
113	Laos	25.14
114	Cambodia	24.54
115	Venezuela	23.33
116	Madagascar	22.57
117	Honduras	21.77
118	Bhutan	21.24
119	Uzbekistan	21.21
120	Georgia	20.83
121	Lesotho	20.71
122	Bolivia	20.14
123	Seychelles	20.09
124	Morocco	19.61
125	Indonesia	19.54

Rank	Country	Mbps
126	Mongolia	19.14
127	Sri Lanka	18.45
128	Samoa	17.82
129	Ivory Coast	17.67
130	São Tomé & Príncipe	17.45
131	Zimbabwe	16.77
132	Ghana	16.59
133	Congo	16.25
134	Burkina Faso	15.91
135	Benin	15.54
136	Papua New Guinea	15.52
137	Gabon	14.85
138	Mayotte	14.50
139	Mozambique	14.15
140	Kazakhstan	13.92
141	Azerbaijan	13.85
142	Suriname	13.79
143	Kenya	13.69
144	Uganda	13.59
145	Fiji	13.28
146	Myanmar	13.28
147	Tanzania	13.26
148	Haiti	13.21
149	Malawi	13.14
150	DR Congo	12.81

Rank	Country	Mbps
151	Angola	12.79
152	Egypt	12.64
153	Liberia	12.45
154	Algeria	12.35
155	Senegal	12.16
156	Solomon Islands	11.54
157	Namibia	11.48
158	Cabo Verde	11.44
159	Kyrgyzstan	11.31
160	Tunisia	11.18
161	Mauritania	10.94
162	Togo	10.54
163	Chad	10.47
164	Iraq	10.39
165	Palau	10.01
166	Iran	9.72
167	Lebanon	9.67
168	Bangladesh	9.22
169	Zambia	8.99
170	Guinea	8.55
171	Comoros	8.38
172	Libya	8.37
173	Cameroon	7.97
174	Pakistan	7.85
175	Vanuatu	7.67

Rank	Country	Mbps
176	Mali	7.66
177	South Sudan	7.47
178	Sierra Leone	7.24
179	Djibouti	7.21
180	Somalia	6.64
181	Burundi	6.07
182	Timor-Leste	6.00
183	Guinea-Bissau	5.63
184	Falkland Islands	5.34
185	Gambia	5.33
186	Micronesia	5.32
187	Equatorial Guinea	5.27
188	Niger	4.97
189	Eritrea	4.61
190	Cuba	4.49
191	Ethiopia	4.45
192	Central African Republic	4.08
193	Sudan	4.02
194	Afghanistan	3.11
195	Tajikistan	3.10
196	Yemen	2.99
197	Syria	2.80
198	Turkmenistan	2.72

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