UK Ranks 13th out of 34 Countries in New Connectivity Index

The United Kingdom has placed 13th out of 34 countries in a new Connectivity Index from Carphone Warehouse, which ranks sixteen different metrics across each country (transport links, information sharing, mobile broadband speeds, tourism and immigration etc.) in order to determine which are the most connected.

The 16 metrics include no. of air passengers and tourists, rail and road infrastructure quality, no. of 5G deployments, mobile broadband speeds, no. of internet hosts (we’re not sure what they mean by that), electricity production, balance of trade, no. of immigrants, passport power, share of GDP p/capita, access to primary education, ethnic diversity, marriage rates and no. of social media users.

In other words the index was created to measure how countries differ when it comes to the various different factors that contribute to a connected country. Each country is then awarded a score from 1-10 based on how connected they are in various areas, which is totalled up at the end to form an overall rating. We should point out that their data for 4G mobile speeds comes from Ookla (speedtest.net).

Overall the USA came top with a score of 101.8 and they were particularly strong for air travel (10), internet hosts (10), roads (8.5) and tourism (8.9). However they were weaker for 5G deployments (1.6) and mobile speeds (3.9). In fairness the 5G ranking is actually quite good since very few countries have deployed such networks.

By comparison the United Kingdom scored 61.3 overall and was strongest for passport power (9.7), social media users (6.8), road quality (6.5), balance of trade (5.3) and share of GDP p/capita (5.1). But we only scored 0.6 for 5G deployments (as above this is still quite good), 0.2 for internet hosts and 3.4 for mobile speeds. In general we’re not quite sure what to make of this index, although it seems convoluted.