Western Europe dominates broadband speed tables

Western European countries take seven of the top ten fastest spots in the world for broadband, with Macau, Taiwan and Japan the only locations elsewhere to make it into the top ten fastest in the world.

The five places with the fastest internet in the world are: Macau (262.74Mbps), the Channel Island of Jersey (256.59Mbps), Iceland (216.56Mbps), Liechtenstein (166.22Mbps) and Gibraltar (159.90Mbps).

The analysis of over a billion broadband speed tests conducted across 220 countries by Cable.co.uk shows the US ranks 11th on 118.01Mbps, with the UK 35th on 72.06.

Of course what the top five have in common is that they are either very small or they are island nations, making it much easier to roll out FTTP full fibre broadband and 5G mobile internet to a smaller population and/or across a smaller area.

Northern Africa has the lowest average speed in the world (7.45Mbps), while the five countries with the slowest speeds are: Turkmenistan (0.77Mbps), the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (0.94Mbps), Yemen (0.97Mbps), Guinea-Bissau (0.98Mbps) and Afghanistan (0.98Mbps).

Things are improving though, this year 67 countries failed to achieve average speeds of 10Mbps or greater, the speed reckoned by UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom to be the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business. This is down from 94 countries in 2021, and 109 countries in 2020.

Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, says:

The fastest average speeds in the world are no longer accelerating away from the rest of the field, since FTTP/pure fibre saturation is hitting its current limits in many of the fastest locations.

Meanwhile, though the countries occupying the bottom end of the table still suffer from extremely poor speeds, the average speed of the bottom 10 percent is steadily improving, though don't expect to be streaming HD movies in those countries anytime soon.

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. There is also a strong correlation between the size of the geographical area in question and the speed offered, with smaller countries/locations easier to service and upgrade and therefore often offering faster average speeds.

You can see the full results on an interactive map on the cable.co.uk site.

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