Internet speeds in South Africa vs The World

South Africa is ranked 97th in the world in average national broadband speed, according to the annual Worldwide Broadband Speed League report released by Cable.co.uk.

The report analysed more than 557 million broadband speed tests worldwide, revealing the ranking of 221 countries and territories when it comes to average national network speeds.

The data was gathered by M-Lab, an open-source project with contributors from civil society organisations, educational institutions, and private sector companies.

At the top of the global broadband speed rankings was Lichtenstein, which boasts a mean download speed of 229.98Mbps. A connection this fast means it would take you just under three minutes to download a 5GB movie.

“Last year, the five fastest countries had download speeds around 125-times faster than the five slowest. That gap is widening,” Cable.co.uk said.

“This year, the top five are 276-times faster than the five slowest.”

In last place is South Sudan, which has a mean download speed of just 0.58Mbps.

According to the report, the average national broadband speed in South Africa was 14.04Mbps – a speed at which it would take over 48 minutes to download a 5GB movie.

We compared the average broadband speeds in South Africa and the rest of the world.

South Africa vs Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa has one of the fastest average broadband speeds in Sub-Saharan Africa, beaten only by Madagascar and Réunion.

Other countries in this region tend to have far lower broadband speeds, with fewer tests and unique IPs measured across the board.

The broadband speed rankings for Sub-Saharan Africa are shown below.

Rank	Country	Mean Download Speed (Mbps)
1	Madagascar	18.00
2	Réunion	16.35
3	South Africa	14.04
4	Kenya	8.20
5	Lesotho	7.43
6	Mauritius	7.28
7	Zimbabwe	6.92
8	Liberia	6.83
9	Cape Verde	6.64
0	Senegal	5.93
11	Cote D’Ivoire	5.55
12	Ghana	5.46
13	Uganda	5.16
14	Comoros	4.85
15	United Republic of Tanzania	4.54
16	Eswatini	4.51
17	Gabon	4.37
18	Burkina Faso	4.19
19	Angola	4.15
20	Malawi	4.07
21	Burundi	4.04
22	Togo	4.03
23	Seychelles	3.96
24	Namibia	3.91
25	Sierra Leone	3.86
26	Zambia	3.84
27	Rwanda	3.80
28	Mayotte	3.52
29	Mozambique	3.47
30	Mali	3.45
31	Nigeria	3.34
32	Guinea	3.04
33	Botswana	2.78
34	Cameroon	2.78
35	Niger	2.77
36	Chad	2.25
37	DR Congo	2.06
38	Republic of the Congo	2.00
39	São Tomé and Príncipe	1.99
40	Benin	1.67
41	Guinea-Bissau	1.61
42	Gambia	1.60
43	Djibouti	1.50
44	Sudan	1.35
45	Somalia	1.14
46	Ethiopia	1.12
47	Equatorial Guinea	0.75
48	South Sudan	0.58

South Africa vs The World

South Africa’s average broadband speeds fall significantly short of countries within Europe and America.

Cable.co.uk consumer telecoms analyst Dan Howdle said the global increase in broadband speeds can be attributed primarily to faster countries.

“While global broadband speeds continue to trend upward, the truth is faster countries are the ones lifting the average, pulling away at speed and leaving the slowest to stagnate,” Howdle said.

“The slowest countries are not slowing, they are simply not growing – while the fastest countries continue to accelerate year-on-year,” he said.

Below are the top 100 countries in the world ranked by mean broadband speed.

Rank	Country	Mean Download Speed (Mbps)
1	Liechtenstein	229.98
2	Jersey	218.37
3	Andorra	213.41
4	Gibraltar	183.09
5	Luxembourg	118.05
6	Iceland	116.88
7	Switzerland	110.45
8	Hong Kong	105.32
9	Monaco	104.98
10	Hungary	99.74
11	Netherlands	95.60
12	Aruba	89.81
13	Malta	87.36
14	Denmark	85.03
15	Aland Islands	81.31
16	Sweden	81.29
17	Bermuda	73.60
18	Singapore	72.75
19	Slovak Republic	72.26
20	United States	71.30
21	Estonia	70.90
22	Norway	67.31
23	New Zealand	66.66
24	Belgium	66.49
25	Slovenia	65.46
26	Romania	61.08
27	Cayman Islands	57.96
28	Barbados	56.90
29	Republic of Lithuania	56.63
30	Spain	55.84
31	Poland	55.40
32	Taiwan	54.77
33	Japan	54.62
34	Canada	52.60
35	Latvia	52.32
36	France	51.33
37	Puerto Rico	47.87
38	Malaysia	46.82
39	Bulgaria	46.22
40	Isle of Man	44.16
41	Finland	44.05
42	Germany	42.33
43	Republic of Korea	40.81
44	Grenada	38.64
45	Bahamas	38.14
46	Portugal	37.99
47	United Kingdom	37.82
48	Guernsey	36.83
49	Panama	36.55
50	Turks and Caicos Islands	36.29
51	Ireland	34.87
52	Croatia	33.82
53	Thailand	30.61
54	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	30.31
55	Trinidad and Tobago	29.70
56	United Arab Emirates	28.33
57	Czechia	28.12
58	Austria	27.74
59	Republic of Moldova	27.48
60	Israel	26.49
61	Greece	26.01
62	Australia	25.65
63	Montenegro	25.07
64	Russian Federation	24.98
65	Serbia	24.74
66	San Marino	24.26
67	Qatar	23.98
68	Italy	23.18
69	Uruguay	22.16
70	Virgin Islands, U.S.	21.39
71	Curaçao	20.87
72	Sri Lanka	20.73
73	Kosovo	20.30
74	Jamaica	20.01
75	Vatican City	19.12
76	Greenland	18.65
77	Madagascar	18.00
78	Brazil	17.89
79	Belize	16.57
80	Paraguay	16.50
81	Costa Rica	16.42
82	Réunion	16.35
83	Saint Lucia	16.35
84	Mexico	16.19
85	Chile	16.10
86	Belarus	16.08
87	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	15.69
88	Bosnia and Herzegovina	15.66
89	Cyprus	15.62
90	Faroe Islands	15.47
91	New Caledonia	15.15
92	Ukraine	15.09
93	Macau	14.66
94	Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan	14.54
95	Saint Martin	14.49
96	Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba	14.28
97	South Africa	14.04
98	Martinique	14.02
99	Virgin Islands, British	13.63
100	Georgia	13.50