Interactive map

Using the map

Countries are colour-coded by average broadband speed measured. As you can see, this paints an interesting picture, with the majority of faster countries clustered around Europe, and most of the slowest countries on the African continent.

Hovering over an individual country will bring up its associated speed data. This includes country name, its ranking out of the 221 countries measured, its mean average download speed, and how long it would take to download a 5GB HD movie using this average speed.

Why some countries are missing data

When it comes to internet provision, the situation varies both by country and region. Generally speaking though, you can apply the rule that the larger and less developed the nation is, the slower the internet access tends to be.

Liechtenstein (this year's fastest) for example, occupies a very small geographical area, and typically the smaller the country's landmass, the easier it becomes to upgrade the infrastructure. There is the economic necessity of Liechtenstein's vibrant digital economy, coupled with the relative ease of delivering high-speed connections across a smaller area.

Conversely, the economy of Western Sahara suffers from geographical remoteness, drought and political turmoil, with agriculture its chief industry. It is vast. There is therefore arguably no pressing economic necessity for high-speed internet, while the cost of delivery would almost certainly exceed Western Sahara's GDP.

Although Western Sahara is just one example, most of the countries not included in the study have issues preventing them from rolling out worthwhile digital infrastructure, and therefore failed to generate enough tests to provide a useful average. Countries excluded were: Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Central African Republic, Cook Islands, Western Sahara, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Kiribati, North Korea, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Saint Helena, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Tokelau, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Samoa.

M-Lab's 2.0 platform upgrade

This is the fourth year running we have undertaken this research. The 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 results are included in the downloadable data set so that year-on-year change may be observed. However, it should be noted that M-Lab has updated its measurement platform this year, with the net effect that absolute speeds are higher than they otherwise would have been. As always, the relative positions in the global league table should be the focus, rather than the absolute numbers. You will find more details about the platform upgrade in the downloadable methodology document.

Our other projects

Cable.co.uk also undertakes annual tracking studies covering the cost of 1GB of mobile data in over 200 countries, and the cost of broadband packages in over 200 countries. In August of 2020, we also released an in-depth report on how COVID-19 lockdown periods have affected global network speeds.