Countries with the fastest internet in the world

The countries with the fastest internet in the world have been announced for 2019. Read our insights from the study and browse the rankings below

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 267 million speed tests across 207 countries or territories.

It is the third year of the assessment and the latest ranking uses data collected in the 12 months up to 8th May 2019.

10 Countries with the fastest internet

Taiwan has the fastest broadband in the world with an average speed of 85.02Mbps.

1. Taiwan
2. Singapore
3. Jersey
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Japan
7. Luxembourg
8. Netherlands
9. Switzerland
10. San Marino

10 Countries with the slowest internet

Yemen has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.38Mbps.

198. Djibouti
199. São Tomé & Prín.
200. Somalia
201. Ethiopia
202. Niger
203. Turkmenistan
204. Mauritania
205. Equatorial Guinea
206. Timor-Leste
207. Yemen

“With average broadband speeds rising by 20.65% in the last year the global picture looks rosy. But the truth is faster countries are the ones lifting the average, pulling away at speed and leaving the slowest to stagnate. Last year, we measured the slowest five countries at 88 times slower than the five fastest. This year they are 125 times slower.”

Dan Howdle, Cable

Key headlines

• The global average broadband internet speed is 11.03Mbps (megabits per second).
• Taiwan has the fastest broadband in the world overtaking Singapore with an average speed of 85.02Mbps.
• Yemen has the slowest broadband in the world with an average speed of just 0.38Mbps.
• It would take over 30 hours to download a 5GB movie file in Yemen while someone in Taiwan could do it in eight minutes.
• The five countries with the fastest internet have download speeds around 125 times faster than the five slowest.
• 37 of the 50 fastest countries are located in Europe, with 10 in Asia or Oceania (Asia-Pacific), two in North America and just one in Africa.
• 141 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. The previous year produced a global average internet speed of 9.1Mbps. This year, the global average is 11.03Mbps – a rise of 20.65% (1.93Mbps).

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. Jersey is Europe’s fastest jurisdiction, offering an average speed of 67.46Mbps. Sweden is Europe’s fastest country with an average speed of 55.18Mbps.

Denmark (5) and Luxembourg (7) are not far behind with average speeds of 43.99 and 40.12Mbps respectively. Of the 54 territories measured in Europe, only Turkey (102) and Armenia (110) are outside the top 100.

The UK is in 34th place, up one place and 3.8MBps faster than last year with an average speed of 22.37Mbps.

The majority of the quickest countries are clustered around Europe with most of the slowest countries in Africa.

The Asia-Pacific region is a more mixed bag with some of the fastest territories in the world – Taiwan (1) Singapore (2), Japan (6), New Zealand (17) and Hong Kong (19) – and some of the slowest: Timor-Leste (206), Turkmenistan (203), Tajikistan (192) and Afghanistan (184).

The US (15) has the fastest broadband in the Americas with an average speed of 32.89Mbps. Generally, Latin American countries are at the slower end of the regional scale. The Cayman Islands has the region’s fastest internet with an average speed of 16.12Mbps. Venezuela (183) has the slowest speeds in the Americas with an average speed of just 1.37Mbps.

“Europe and parts of Asia are dominating 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

Of the slowest countries for broadband, 12 are in the Arab States, 10 are in Asia & Pacific and three are in Latin America. Only UAE (67) and Bahrain (94) of the Arab States are not in the bottom 100.

Africa is some distance behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband provision with 25 of the 50 slowest-performing countries in Africa. Madagascar is the fastest African nation in 33rd place with an average speed of 22.57Mbps.

Complete rankings

Sort the table below to view countries ranked by their average download speed in megabits per second (Mbps) and the typical download time (DT) for a 5GB movie. The ranking also includes changes from the previous year.

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

Rank	Country	Mbps	5GB DT	± 2018
1	Taiwan	85.02	00h 08m	13
2	Singapore	70.86	00h 09m	-1
3	Jersey	67.46	00h 10m	7
4	Sweden	55.18	00h 12m	-2
5	Denmark	49.19	00h 13m	-2
6	Japan	42.77	00h 15m	6
7	Luxembourg	41.69	00h 16m	1
8	Netherlands	40.21	00h 16m	-1
9	Switzerland	38.85	00h 17m	2
10	San Marino	38.73	00h 17m	N/A
11	Norway	38.46	00h 17m	-7
12	Andorra	38.31	00h 17m	6
13	Spain	36.06	00h 18m	3
14	Belgium	35.69	00h 19m	-8
15	United States	32.89	00h 20m	5
16	Latvia	32.74	00h 20m	-3
17	New Zealand	32.72	00h 20m	9
18	Estonia	31.55	00h 21m	-3
19	Hong Kong	31.37	00h 21m	0
20	Hungary	31.10	00h 21m	-11
21	Lithuania	30.66	00h 22m	-4
22	France	30.44	00h 22m	1
23	Slovakia	29.45	00h 23m	-2
24	Finland	29.34	00h 23m	0
25	Canada	28.76	00h 23m	8
26	Slovenia	27.83	00h 24m	2
27	Germany	24.64	00h 27m	-2
28	Poland	24.38	00h 28m	4
29	Ireland	23.87	00h 28m	7
30	Malaysia	23.86	00h 28m	18
31	Czechia	23.27	00h 29m	-4
32	Portugal	22.75	00h 30m	-3
33	Madagascar	22.57	00h 30m	-11
34	United Kingdom	22.37	00h 30m	1
35	Iceland	22.13	00h 30m	-1
36	Liechtenstein	22.04	00h 30m	1
37	Romania	21.80	00h 31m	-32
38	Gibraltar	20.27	00h 33m	6
39	Monaco	20.20	00h 33m	21
40	Austria	19.33	00h 35m	-2
41	Macao	19.19	00h 35m	0
42	Rep. of Korea	19.18	00h 35m	-12
43	Serbia	19.17	00h 35m	7
44	Guernsey	18.26	00h 37m	10
45	Thailand	18.21	00h 37m	-5
46	Malta	18.16	00h 37m	0
47	Italy	17.30	00h 39m	-4
48	Croatia	17.22	00h 39m	-6
49	Bulgaria	16.95	00h 40m	-18
50	Australia	16.36	00h 41m	2
51	Cayman Isl.	16.12	00h 42m	4
52	Barbados	16.03	00h 42m	-13
53	Aruba	15.15	00h 45m	-4
54	Russia	14.89	00h 45m	-7
55	Bermuda	13.55	00h 50m	12
56	Greece	13.41	00h 50m	1
57	Belarus	13.19	00h 51m	9
58	Trinidad & Tobago	12.90	00h 52m	-2
59	Kosovo	12.07	00h 56m	-6
60	Rep. of Moldova	11.56	00h 59m	-15
61	U.S. Virgin Isl.	11.45	00h 59m	0
62	Bahamas	11.13	01h 01m	3
63	Isle of Man	11.04	01h 01m	-1
64	Cyprus	11.00	01h 02m	-5
65	Faroe Islands	10.21	01h 06m	-2
66	Réunion	10.02	01h 08m	76
67	UAE	9.62	01h 10m	30
68	Dominica	9.48	01h 12m	19
69	Uruguay	9.16	01h 14m	9
70	Montenegro	9.10	01h 14m	4
71	Jamaica	9.08	01h 15m	-2
72	Israel	8.85	01h 17m	-2
73	Turks & Caicos Isl.	8.78	01h 17m	-22
74	India	8.66	01h 18m	14
75	South AFR	8.40	01h 21m	1
76	Panama	8.09	01h 24m	-4
77	Puerto Rico	8.00	01h 25m	-4
78	North Macedonia	7.97	01h 25m	-10
79	Bonaire	7.92	01h 26m	N/A
80	British Virgin Isl.	7.75	01h 28m	14
81	Ukraine	7.72	01h 28m	-23
82	Sri Lanka	7.67	01h 28m	-1
83	Curaçao	7.64	01h 29m	-3
84	Kenya	7.62	01h 29m	-20
85	Albania	7.61	01h 29m	1
86	Bosnia & Herz.	7.53	01h 30m	-15
87	Martinique	7.23	01h 34m	-3
88	Georgia	7.14	01h 35m	-11
89	Vietnam	7.02	01h 37m	-14
90	Belize	6.80	01h 40m	18
91	Guadeloupe	6.72	01h 41m	8
92	Indonesia	6.65	01h 42m	-9
93	Greenland	6.51	01h 44m	N/A
94	Bahrain	6.24	01h 49m	-4
95	St Kitts & Nevis	6.16	01h 50m	-16
96	Saint Lucia	6.08	01h 52m	23
97	Philippines	6.05	01h 52m	-8
98	Mexico	6.02	01h 53m	-13
99	Antigua & Barbuda	5.91	01h 55m	10
100	Morocco	5.48	02h 04m	5
101	Qatar	5.35	02h 07m	10
102	Turkey	5.27	02h 09m	-11
103	Saudi Arabia	5.27	02h 09m	1
104	Jordan	5.20	02h 11m	-2
105	Sint Maarten	5.13	02h 13m	-12
106	Grenada	5.07	02h 14m	31
107	Oman	5.07	02h 14m	3
108	Mauritius	5.02	02h 16m	31
109	Myanmar	4.87	02h 20m	-9
110	Armenia	4.85	02h 20m	-3
111	Brazil	4.84	02h 21m	22
112	Brunei	4.78	02h 22m	-11
113	Kazakhstan	4.66	02h 26m	-18
114	Tunisia	4.64	02h 27m	-2
115	Fiji	4.62	02h 27m	12
116	Anguilla	4.59	02h 28m	N/A
117	Costa Rica	4.52	02h 31m	-11
118	Iran	4.39	02h 35m	27
119	New Caledonia	4.34	02h 37m	-2
120	Saint Barthélemy	4.12	02h 45m	N/A
121	Dominican Rep.	4.09	02h 47m	-25
122	Cambodia	4.03	02h 49m	-19
123	Saint Martin	3.98	02h 51m	N/A
124	Chile	3.89	02h 55m	-32
125	Kuwait	3.88	02h 55m	0
126	St Vincent & the Gren.	3.81	02h 59m	6
127	Guam	3.73	03h 02m	-3
128	Nepal	3.62	03h 08m	16
129	Paraguay	3.55	03h 12m	26
130	Guyana	3.49	03h 15m	-2
131	Colombia	3.48	03h 16m	-17
132	Ecuador	3.46	03h 17m	-6
133	Suriname	3.40	03h 20m	3
134	Namibia	3.39	03h 21m	-3
135	Rwanda	3.34	03h 24m	-5
136	Cabo Verde	3.31	03h 26m	-21
137	Guatemala	3.22	03h 32m	-19
138	Uganda	3.22	03h 32m	2
139	Ghana	3.20	03h 33m	-19
140	Zambia	3.13	03h 37m	6
141	Azerbaijan	3.10	03h 39m	-6
142	Burundi	3.03	03h 45m	-8
143	Haiti	2.94	03h 51m	-5
144	El Salvador	2.93	03h 52m	-21
145	Seychelles	2.93	03h 53m	11
146	Laos	2.92	03h 53m	-48
147	Peru	2.86	03h 58m	-34
148	Honduras	2.84	04h 00m	-26
149	Argentina	2.83	04h 01m	-33
150	Zimbabwe	2.73	04h 09m	-29
151	Bangladesh	2.72	04h 11m	-3
152	China	2.69	04h 13m	-11
153	Comoros	2.54	04h 28m	N/A
154	Nicaragua	2.54	04h 28m	-25
155	Kyrgyzstan	2.5	04h 33m	8
156	Papua New Guinea	2.47	04h 36m	-6
157	Tanzania	2.34	04h 51m	-8
158	French Guiana	2.26	05h 01m	-15
159	Senegal	2.25	05h 03m	10
160	Mozambique	2.16	05h 16m	-7
161	Liberia	2.11	05h 23m	-3
162	Mongolia	2.10	05h 24m	-1
163	Togo	1.96	05h 48m	10
164	Sudan	1.93	05h 53m	-2
165	Botswana	1.92	05h 56m	-1
166	Libya	1.88	06h 03m	1
167	Lebanon	1.84	06h 11m	-7
168	Ivory Coast	1.83	06h 12m	-11
169	Palestine	1.83	06h 13m	-15
170	Maldives	1.81	06h 16m	-23
171	Bolivia	1.73	06h 33m	-20
172	Cuba	1.66	06h 51m	-90
173	Egypt	1.62	07h 01m	-3
174	Malawi	1.59	07h 10m	5
175	Mali	1.56	07h 17m	12
176	Nigeria	1.56	07h 18m	-24
177	French Polynesia	1.51	07h 31m	-9
178	eSwatini (Swaziland)	1.45	07h 51m	-4
179	Pakistan	1.44	07h 55m	-8
180	Iraq	1.39	08h 11m	-2
181	Uzbekistan	1.37	08h 17m	3
182	Algeria	1.37	08h 19m	-7
183	Venezuela	1.37	08h 20m	-7
184	Afghanistan	1.26	08h 59m	-4
185	Gabon	1.26	09h 03m	-4
186	Guinea	1.25	09h 05m	10
187	Angola	1.21	09h 22m	-22
188	Gambia	1.21	09h 25m	-22
189	Sierra Leone	1.20	09h 29m	-30
190	DR Congo	1.10	10h 21m	0
191	Mayotte	1.09	10h 24m	-6
192	Tajikistan	1.05	10h 50m	-4
193	Cameroon	1.03	11h 04m	-21
194	Burkina Faso	1.02	11h 09m	-2
195	Syria	0.95	12h 02m	-1
196	Benin	0.94	12h 02m	-19
197	Rep. of Congo	0.93	12h 14m	-6
198	Djibouti	0.88	12h 54m	-9
199	São Tomé & Prín.	0.87	13h 08m	-17
200	Somalia	0.86	13h 17m	-3
201	Ethiopia	0.80	14h 10m	-18
202	Niger	0.71	16h 05m	-9
203	Turkmenistan	0.70	16h 10m	-5
204	Mauritania	0.59	19h 22m	-9
205	Equatorial Guinea	0.51	22h 22m	N/A
206	Timor-Leste	0.45	25h 24m	-7
207	Yemen	0.38	30h 01m	-7

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

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