Ranked: countries with the fastest internet in the world

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

20th December 2021

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 1.1 billion speed tests across 224 countries and territories.

It is the fourth year of the assessment and the latest ranking uses data collected in the 12 months up to 30th June 2021 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 211.26Mbps. Many would argue that having the fastest internet, means having the best internet in the world.

1. Liechtenstein
2. Iceland
3. Andorra
4. Monaco
5. Luxembourg
6. Netherlands
7. Hungary
8. Singapore
9. Japan
10. USA

10 Countries with the slowest internet

Turkmenistan has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.50Mbps.

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

“The acceleration of the fastest countries in the world has finally plateaued this year as they reach FTTP pure fibre saturation. Increases in speed among the elite performers, then, can be attributed in greater part to uptake in many cases than to network upgrades. Meanwhile, though the countries occupying the bottom end of the table still suffer from extremely poor speeds, 2021’s figures do indicate that the situation is improving.”

– Dan Howdle, Cable

Key headlines

• The global average broadband internet speed is 28.69Mbps (megabits per second).
• Liechtenstein has maintained the fastest broadband in the world with an average speed of 211.26Mbps.
• Turkmenistan has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.50Mbps.
• It would take over 1.5 hours to download a 5GB movie file in Turkmenistan while someone in Liechtenstein could do it in under three minutes.
• The five countries with the fastest internet have download speeds around 202 times faster than the five slowest.
• 35 of the 50 fastest countries are located in Europe, with seven in Asia, six in North America and two in the Oceania.
• By contrast, 31 of the 50 slowest-performing countries are located in Africa.
• 94 countries or territories 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% to 29.79Mbps.

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.

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 ten countries with the fastest internet are in Europe. Liechtenstein has the fastest broadband in Europe and the world an average speed of 211.26Mbps.

Iceland, Andorra, Monaco and Luxembourg are all close behind. The UK is in 36th place with an average speed of 51.48Mbps.

In Asia, Singapore (8), Japan (9) and Hong Kong (11) the fastest broadband with South Korea some distance behind in 29th place.

The US (10) has the fastest broadband in the Americas with an average speed of 92.42Mbps. Canada (19) is the region’s second-fastest with 79.96Mbps. Generally, Caribbean countries perform well with Aruba (22) the region’s fastest internet with an average speed of 70.66Mbps.

Brazil (56) has the fastest broadband in South America at 33.34Mbps, while Venezuela (175) has the slowest at 2.62Mbps.

Sub-Saharan Africa is some distance behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband provision. 49 countries in the region were assessed, with 56 of them in the lowest 50% of countries in the table. South Africa is the fastest African nation in 73rd place with an average speed of 19.94Mbps.

“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 Israel (55) UAE (59) and Cyprus (61). The slowest were Yemen (197), Syria (187) and the Palestinian Territories (164).

Countries with the fastest internet in Europe

1. Liechtenstein
2. Iceland
3. Andorra
4. Monaco
5. Luxembourg
6. Netherlands
7. Hungary
8. Spain
9. Sweden
10. Norway

Countries with the fastest internet in Asia

1. Singapore
2. Japan
3. Hong Kong
4. South Korea
5. Thailand
6. Taiwan
7. Malaysia
8. India
9. Vietnam
10. Philippines

Countries with the fastest internet in Africa

1. South Africa
2. Madagascar
3. Congo
4. Seychelles
5. Kenya
6. Burkina Faso
7. Morocco
8. Cote D’Ivoire
9. Ghana
10. Nigeria

Countries with the fastest internet in the Americas

1. USA
2. Canada
3. Aruba
4. Barbados
5. Greenland
6. Bahamas
7. Trinidad & Tobago
8. Brazil
9. Panama
10. Belize

Complete rankings

The table below ranks countries by their average download speed in megabits per second (Mbps).

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

Rank	Country	Mbps
1	Liechtenstein	211.26
2	Iceland	191.83
3	Andorra	164.66
4	Monaco	144.29
5	Luxembourg	107.94
6	Netherlands	107.30
7	Hungary	104.07
8	Singapore	97.61
9	Japan	96.36
10	USA	92.42
11	Hong Kong	91.04
12	Spain	89.59
13	Sweden	88.98
14	Norway	88.67
15	France	85.96
16	New Zealand	85.95
17	Malta	85.20
18	Estonia	84.72
19	Canada	79.96
20	Belgium	78.46
21	Vatican City	73.49
22	Aruba	70.66
23	Romania	67.40
24	Slovenia	67.20
25	Poland	63.84
26	Bulgaria	63.41
27	Latvia	63.28
28	Portugal	63.02
29	South Korea	61.72
30	Germany	60.55
31	Lithuania	56.17
32	Barbados	55.92
33	Finland	55.08
34	Slovakia	54.92
35	Thailand	53.95
36	UK	51.48
37	Ireland	51.41
38	Switzerland	50.83
39	Croatia	49.77
40	Denmark	49.24
41	Taiwan	46.43
42	Malaysia	42.83
43	Greenland	41.56
44	San Marino	40.55
45	Australia	40.5
46	Montenegro	40.14
47	Bahamas	39.71
48	Austria	37.99
49	Czech Rep	37.23
50	Italy	36.69

Rank	Country	Mbps
51	Serbia	36.59
52	Moldova	36.47
53	Trinidad & Tobago	35.81
54	Russia	35.73
55	Israel	34.97
56	Brazil	33.34
57	Bosnia & Herz	31.72
58	Panama	30.58
59	UAE	29.90
60	Greece	29.76
61	Cyprus	28.30
62	Ukraine	25.26
63	Qatar	24.16
64	Belize	23.12
65	India	22.53
66	Kosovo	22.21
67	Uruguay	21.73
68	Guadeloupe	21.32
69	Jamaica	20.96
70	Vietnam	20.66
71	Grenada	20.49
72	Curaçao	20.18
73	South Africa	19.94
74	Belarus	19.86
75	Paraguay	19.41
76	Albania	19.36
77	Costa Rica	19.02
78	Mexico	18.83
79	Saudi Arabia	18.10
80	Kuwait	18.06
81	Armenia	18.05
82	Philippines	16.84
83	Oman	16.73
84	Bahrain	16.37
85	Madagascar	16.28
86	Brunei	15.79
87	North Macedonia	15.38
88	Jordan	15.25
89	Saint Lucia	15.02
90	Mongolia	14.94
91	Saint Vincent & Gren	14.32
92	Georgia	13.83
93	Chile	13.76
94	Colombia	13.13
95	Saint Kitts & Nevis	12.96
96	Dominica	12.41
97	Haiti	12.12
98	Congo	12.07
99	Seychelles	12.04
100	Dominican Rep	11.87

Rank	Country	Mbps
101	Turkey	11.58
102	Peru	11.35
103	Kenya	11.27
104	Burkina Faso	10.73
105	Morocco	10.33
106	Ecuador	10.25
107	El Salvador	9.95
108	Sri Lanka	9.95
109	Guatemala	9.85
110	Nicaragua	9.75
111	Indonesia	9.58
112	Cote D'Ivoire	9.54
113	Fiji	9.4
114	Guyana	9.26
115	Ghana	9.23
116	Anguilla	9
117	Antigua & Barbuda	8.69
118	Nigeria	8.68
119	Argentina	8.68
120	Tanzania	8.6
121	Mauritius	8.53
122	Uganda	8.52
123	Cambodia	8.49
124	Lesotho	8.46
125	Cape Verde	7.94
126	Zimbabwe	7.92
127	Mayotte	7.7
128	Tunisia	7.46
129	Maldives	7.45
130	Kyrgyzstan	7.44
131	Suriname	7.44
132	Bolivia	7.36
133	Mozambique	7.17
134	Honduras	7.17
135	Iran	7.05
136	Senegal	7.02
137	Egypt	6.94
138	Nepal	6.84
139	Samoa	6.8
140	Marshall Islands	6.71
141	Uzbekistan	6.64
142	Azerbaijan	6.63
143	Bhutan	6.44
144	Rwanda	6.29
145	Laos	5.91
146	Angola	5.88
147	Kazakhstan	5.83
148	Lebanon	5.67
149	Iraq	5.58
150	Zambia	5.48

Rank	Country	Mbps
151	Solomon Islands	5.33
152	Liberia	5.23
153	Papua New Guinea	5.10
154	Gabon	4.99
155	Malawi	4.96
156	Palau	4.84
157	Mali	4.72
158	Myanmar	4.58
159	Namibia	4.42
160	Comoros	3.99
161	Eswatini	3.73
162	Libya	3.73
163	Botswana	3.65
164	Palestinian Territories	3.65
165	DR Congo	3.63
166	Togo	3.54
167	Niger	3.23
168	Algeria	3.08
169	Cameroon	3.04
170	Cuba	2.92
171	Bangladesh	2.90
172	Vanuatu	2.90
173	Pakistan	2.82
174	Burundi	2.82
175	Venezuela	2.62
176	Benin	2.59
177	Mauritania	2.54
178	São Tomé & Príncipe	2.43
179	Eritrea	2.41
180	Guinea	2.39
181	Chad	2.39
182	Sierra Leone	2.19
183	China	2.06
184	Gambia	2.04
185	Tajikistan	1.82
186	Sudan	1.80
187	Syria	1.67
188	Micronesia	1.63
189	Somalia	1.59
190	Djibouti	1.46
191	Afghanistan	1.41
192	South Sudan	1.40
193	Timor-Leste	1.33
194	Equatorial Guinea	1.30
195	Guinea-Bissau	1.24
196	Ethiopia	1.20
197	Yemen	0.68
198	Turkmenistan	0.50

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

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

► Most dangerous countries in the world
► Countries with the best healthcare in the world
► World’s worst countries to drive in
► Most peaceful countries in the world
► Best countries for women
► Poorest countries in the world – ranked
► Happiest countries in the world
► World’s most powerful passport
► Most stressed countries in the world
► Most expensive cities for expats
► World’s most democratic countries

---

Enjoyed this post? pin it for later…

---

Lead image: Ekaphon maneechot/Shutterstock