UK Jumps to 35th out of 220 Countries for Broadband Speed in 2022
Research firm M-Lab and Cable.co.uk have today published their annual 2022 global broadband ISP speeds report, which reveals that the United Kingdom delivered an average (mean) download speed of 72.06Mbps (up from 51.48Mbps last year), ranking us 35th fastest in the world (up from 43rd in 2021 and 47th in 2020).
The research stems from information gathered via 1.1 billion speed tests, which were carried out across the world via 220 countries (down from 224 last year). The average global broadband download speed was recorded as 34.79Mbps (Megabits per second), which is up from 29.79Mbps last year.
Overall, the top five fastest “countries” in the world this year were found to be Macau (262.74Mbps), Jersey (256.59Mbps), Iceland (216.56Mbps), Liechtenstein (166.22Mbps) and Gibraltar (159.9Mbps). All but one of those are within Western Europe and are either very small or island nations, where Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks are usually prevalent and often easier to deploy.
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On the flip side, the five countries in the world with the slowest network speeds were Turkmenistan (0.77Mbps), the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (0.94Mbps), Yemen (0.97Mbps), Guinea-Bissau (0.98Mbps) and Afghanistan (0.98Mbps).
The good news is that the UK’s global country ranking has improved significantly in the last year, but at 72.06Mbps we’re still behind 18 other states in Western Europe. The strong improvement in performance is likely down to the rapidly growing take-up and coverage of full fibre networks, as well as the completion of Virgin Media’s (VMO2) DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade that made gigabit speeds possible on their Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) lines.
Caveats of the Data
As we’ve said before, speed testing based reports like this should be taken with a pinch of salt because they can easily be misinterpreted. For example, nobody should be equating such studies to directly reflect the availability of faster connections, as the two are far from being in sync.
On top of that, people are more likely to measure their speed if there is something wrong or if they aren’t getting the speed they need, which can produce a negative bias. The fact that the study completely overlooks other key metrics, such as upload speeds and latency, is another annoyance.
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Just for some context on actual network availability in the UK, Ofcom reported in May 2022 (here) that fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) networks are available to over 96% of UK premises and 66% can access a “gigabit” (1Gbps+) capable network – falling to 33% if you only include FTTP networks. But many people have yet to upgrade (i.e. they cannot afford, are aware of, or even feel the need to upgrade).
Such testing can also be impacted by other factors, such as poor home wiring, user choice of package (e.g. 1Gbps could be available, but people may pick a slower and cheaper tier), local network congestion (i.e. conducting a test while others or background tasks are using the network) and slow home WiFi etc. Likewise, it’s unclear whether this study has also lumped mobile data (4G, 5G etc.) speeds or business connections in with fixed line services to homes.
Nevertheless, if we assume that such caveats will apply to all countries, then the data is still useful as a rough gauge of market change over time and take-up across the world. The UK Government’s new £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to extend gigabit coverage to at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025 and then 99%+ by 2030, will also help to improve matters, eventually.
220 Countries Ranked by Average (Mean) Download Speed
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| Rank | Country | Avg. Download Speed (Mbps) |
| 1 | Macau | 262.74 |
| 2 | Jersey | 256.59 |
| 3 | Iceland | 216.56 |
| 4 | Liechtenstein | 166.22 |
| 5 | Gibraltar | 159.90 |
| 6 | Andorra | 159.80 |
| 7 | Taiwan | 135.88 |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 131.95 |
| 9 | Japan | 122.33 |
| 10 | France | 120.01 |
| 11 | United States | 118.01 |
| 12 | Singapore | 116.62 |
| 13 | Spain | 115.61 |
| 14 | Netherlands | 113.98 |
| 15 | Romania | 112.39 |
| 16 | Malta | 107.70 |
| 17 | Canada | 106.80 |
| 18 | Hong Kong | 100.89 |
| 19 | Monaco | 100.26 |
| 20 | Cayman Islands | 99.42 |
| 21 | New Zealand | 94.44 |
| 22 | Isle of Man | 91.97 |
| 23 | Bermuda | 91.96 |
| 24 | Belgium | 91.74 |
| 25 | Portugal | 91.61 |
| 26 | Estonia | 89.81 |
| 27 | Chile | 89.18 |
| 28 | Norway | 88.80 |
| 29 | Republic of Korea | 87.59 |
| 30 | Sweden | 86.76 |
| 31 | Republic of Lithuania | 84.80 |
| 32 | Aland Islands | 78.47 |
| 33 | Germany | 72.95 |
| 34 | Puerto Rico | 72.78 |
| 35 | United Kingdom | 72.06 |
| 36 | Ireland | 70.42 |
| 37 | Republic of Moldova | 66.08 |
| 38 | Thailand | 63.30 |
| 39 | Switzerland | 63.20 |
| 40 | Latvia | 62.55 |
| 41 | Aruba | 61.10 |
| 42 | Uruguay | 59.29 |
| 43 | Finland | 56.28 |
| 44 | Poland | 55.82 |
| 45 | Brazil | 53.89 |
| 46 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 53.52 |
| 47 | Denmark | 52.57 |
| 48 | Rwanda | 52.17 |
| 49 | Serbia | 51.84 |
| 50 | Malaysia | 50.44 |
| 51 | Greenland | 48.42 |
| 52 | Ukraine | 47.74 |
| 53 | Russian Federation | 47.71 |
| 54 | Australia | 47.22 |
| 55 | Israel | 47.05 |
| 56 | Italy | 46.77 |
| 57 | Bahamas | 45.70 |
| 58 | Austria | 45.56 |
| 59 | Guernsey | 45.51 |
| 60 | Virgin Islands, U.S. | 44.55 |
| 61 | Hungary | 42.99 |
| 62 | Barbados | 42.08 |
| 63 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 42.05 |
| 64 | Virgin Islands, British | 40.44 |
| 65 | San Marino | 40.34 |
| 66 | Saint Martin | 39.91 |
| 67 | Greece | 39.31 |
| 68 | Czechia | 39.15 |
| 69 | Montenegro | 38.65 |
| 70 | Kosovo | 38.64 |
| 71 | Cyprus | 38.52 |
| 72 | Grenada | 38.44 |
| 73 | Slovenia | 38.15 |
| 74 | Réunion | 37.44 |
| 75 | Northern Mariana Islands | 35.94 |
| 76 | Trinidad and Tobago | 35.79 |
| 77 | India | 32.44 |
| 78 | Colombia | 32.41 |
| 79 | New Caledonia | 32.34 |
| 80 | Peru | 32.00 |
| 81 | Philippines | 31.60 |
| 82 | Kuwait | 30.87 |
| 83 | Saint Lucia | 30.77 |
| 84 | Panama | 30.04 |
| 85 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 30.03 |
| 86 | Guam | 29.41 |
| 87 | Curaçao | 29.26 |
| 88 | South Africa | 28.62 |
| 89 | Faroe Islands | 28.40 |
| 90 | Belarus | 27.69 |
| 91 | Mexico | 27.62 |
| 92 | Belize | 27.10 |
| 93 | Jamaica | 26.46 |
| 94 | Paraguay | 25.27 |
| 95 | Qatar | 25.02 |
| 96 | Bulgaria | 24.77 |
| 97 | Costa Rica | 24.58 |
| 98 | Armenia | 23.83 |
| 99 | Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba | 23.53 |
| 100 | United Arab Emirates | 22.75 |
| 101 | Saudi Arabia | 22.42 |
| 102 | North Macedonia | 21.59 |
| 103 | Vietnam | 21.54 |
| 104 | Guadeloupe | 21.34 |
| 105 | Slovak Republic | 21.19 |
| 106 | Croatia | 20.74 |
| 107 | Argentina | 20.34 |
| 108 | Dominica | 20.18 |
| 109 | Madagascar | 19.29 |
| 110 | Martinique | 19.28 |
| 111 | Bahrain | 18.36 |
| 112 | Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan | 17.69 |
| 113 | Mongolia | 17.56 |
| 114 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 17.55 |
| 115 | Oman | 16.59 |
| 116 | American Samoa | 16.52 |
| 117 | Saint Barthélemy | 16.51 |
| 118 | Brunei | 16.29 |
| 119 | Turkey | 16.00 |
| 120 | Antigua and Barbuda | 15.99 |
| 121 | Nicaragua | 15.38 |
| 122 | Nigeria | 15.37 |
| 123 | Georgia | 15.20 |
| 124 | Seychelles | 14.89 |
| 125 | French Guiana | 14.81 |
| 126 | Guyana | 14.81 |
| 127 | Maldives | 13.57 |
| 128 | Ecuador | 13.47 |
| 129 | Sri Lanka | 13.46 |
| 130 | Mauritius | 13.44 |
| 131 | Burkina Faso | 13.43 |
| 132 | Guatemala | 13.36 |
| 133 | Morocco | 13.03 |
| 134 | Anguilla | 13.00 |
| 135 | Dominican Republic | 12.66 |
| 136 | El Salvador | 12.53 |
| 137 | Kenya | 12.42 |
| 138 | Kyrgyzstan | 11.78 |
| 139 | Nepal | 11.78 |
| 140 | Indonesia | 11.58 |
| 141 | Albania | 11.47 |
| 142 | Ghana | 11.24 |
| 143 | Bhutan | 11.13 |
| 144 | Uganda | 11.01 |
| 145 | Honduras | 10.88 |
| 146 | Lesotho | 10.68 |
| 147 | Bolivia | 10.66 |
| 148 | United Republic of Tanzania | 10.52 |
| 149 | Iran | 10.43 |
| 150 | Cote D’Ivoire | 10.14 |
| 151 | Fiji | 10.14 |
| 152 | Cambodia | 10.01 |
| 153 | Sint Maarten | 10.01 |
| 154 | Kazakhstan | 9.89 |
| 155 | Uzbekistan | 9.65 |
| 156 | Lao People’s Democratic Republic | 9.64 |
| 157 | Haiti | 9.54 |
| 158 | Suriname | 9.48 |
| 159 | Botswana | 9.36 |
| 160 | Namibia | 9.28 |
| 161 | Cape Verde | 9.08 |
| 162 | Zimbabwe | 8.94 |
| 163 | French Polynesia | 8.72 |
| 164 | Malawi | 8.48 |
| 165 | Mozambique | 8.38 |
| 166 | Zambia | 8.36 |
| 167 | Tunisia | 8.32 |
| 168 | Mayotte | 8.26 |
| 169 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 8.16 |
| 170 | Egypt | 7.81 |
| 171 | Papua New Guinea | 7.55 |
| 172 | Republic of the Congo | 6.79 |
| 173 | Myanmar | 6.68 |
| 174 | Angola | 6.66 |
| 175 | Azerbaijan | 6.61 |
| 176 | Senegal | 6.53 |
| 177 | Vanuatu | 6.53 |
| 178 | Iraq | 6.48 |
| 179 | Algeria | 6.27 |
| 180 | Gabon | 5.81 |
| 181 | Marshall Islands | 5.76 |
| 182 | Palestine | 5.36 |
| 183 | Libya | 5.27 |
| 184 | DR Congo | 4.90 |
| 185 | Eswatini | 4.76 |
| 186 | Mali | 4.69 |
| 187 | Venezuela | 4.47 |
| 188 | Niger | 4.33 |
| 189 | Liberia | 4.19 |
| 190 | Togo | 4.15 |
| 191 | Mauritania | 3.98 |
| 192 | Federated States of Micronesia | 3.96 |
| 193 | Lebanon | 3.86 |
| 194 | Sierra Leone | 3.79 |
| 195 | Bangladesh | 3.74 |
| 196 | South Sudan | 3.73 |
| 197 | Guinea | 3.70 |
| 198 | Wallis and Futuna | 3.63 |
| 199 | Pakistan | 3.55 |
| 200 | Chad | 3.49 |
| 201 | Burundi | 3.44 |
| 202 | Cameroon | 3.35 |
| 203 | Cuba | 3.26 |
| 204 | Benin | 3.14 |
| 205 | Syrian Arab Republic | 2.88 |
| 206 | São Tomé and Príncipe | 2.81 |
| 207 | China | 2.78 |
| 208 | Gambia | 2.75 |
| 209 | Sudan | 2.57 |
| 210 | Djibouti | 2.34 |
| 211 | Tajikistan | 2.02 |
| 212 | Eritrea | 1.89 |
| 213 | Ethiopia | 1.68 |
| 214 | Somalia | 1.60 |
| 215 | Equatorial Guinea | 1.34 |
| 216 | Afghanistan | 0.98 |
| 217 | Guinea-Bissau | 0.98 |
| 218 | Yemen | 0.97 |
| 219 | Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste | 0.94 |
| 220 | Turkmenistan | 0.77 |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Even when FTTP becomes available, consumers may delay upgrading until their existing contracts terminate, to avoid being locked into a new contract with their existing provider. I switched from BT’s lousy service at £27 a month discounted giving me 7 Mbps to Vodafone’s 100 Mbps for £25 a month, saving me money. However, it’s commonplace for companies to lock consumers into contracts for 24 months. I had to wait until my contract was over, although I could have upgraded before. However, I would have ended up paying an extra £10 a month for their nearest equivalent. As existing contracts end we can expect a big jump in average speeds.
Something’s not right about the USA being at #11.
All that tells me is that the haves are able to access speeds far in excess of that available to the have-nots.
Remember that a large percentage of US homes (some 90% according to cable.co.uk) have cable with DOCSIS 3.1 so they enjoy gigabit speeds – although with little local competition in many areas they are pay through the nose for it. My own experience in the US is a consistently good connection in the metropolitan areas.
There’s a good amount of fibre as well (as mentioned above) lots of multi-gig cable. 2.5gig home connections are not that unusual.
Hmm not so much. 2.5G on cable isn’t really a thing in the US. They’ve gigabit and 1.2 Gbit tiers but no 2.5G as far as I’m aware. Might be some smaller companies providing that service but not Comcast, Spectrum or Optimum Online / Altice.
The big thing with those guys is that their equivalent of BT/Openreach is upgrading to XGSPON and selling tiers that make use of it while our telco is still on GPON with no public plans to upgrade.
The big thing with the USA is definitely the huge availability and uptake of cable services. Even legacy DoCSIS 3.0 services can happily provide 500+ Mb/s.
Just for some context on actual network availability in the UK, Ofcom reported in May 2022 (here) that fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) networks are available to over 96% of UK premises and 66% can access a “gigabit” (1Gbps+) capable network
Not in Dankshire, the forgotten county.
I recall your posts on here illustrating how remote you are. Can’t be a huge surprise that living in an area where the deployment costs are very high means companies aren’t falling over themselves to lose money building to you, can it?
@An Engineer
No its not remote, its a town of approx 7000+ properties and various industries. Unfortunately apart from new builds, FTTP has not arrived, FTTC was not implemented fairly (post code lottery). 4G is average, no 5G, dark fibre is around the town.
The remote bit has microwave based internet, which does not reach the town if it did then I would not being so disgruntled.
Having contacted various fibre suppliers, no one replied. The town is now under the new FTTP regime (DCMS) so I hope Dankshire County Council are not involved. The town is within a marginal seat, so hopefully now the Buffon has gone, we may see some progress. Tried OR FOD, too difficult, too costly. I am not a Socialist, but this whole mess has been caused by the current government’s mishandling, profit before people.
Compared to other similar we are miles behind with HS Broadband
the 66% with access to 1GB looks very suspect
It’s technically 70% now, but that largely reflects Virgin Media’s 15-16 million UK premises (all are capable of gigabit speeds) and the coverage by FTTP deployments from other operators (FTTP by itself would be around 40%). So there’s nothing “suspect” about Ofcom’s figure, it’s actually a fair reflection of reality – at least for download performance.
The UK could move up several places if certain “non” countries were excluded. eg Jersey, Alland Is, Isle of Man, Macau, Gibraltar.
Or we could move up by increasing the deployment of faster connections into areas with no existing gigabit connections thus actually improving the spread rather than massaging the figures or providing overbuild