Dealing with slow internet access can be painful. Waiting for web pages to load, waiting for photos to upload to social media, waiting for music and movies to download. Too much waiting. However, things could be a lot worse. If you lived in Libya, Nepal or Nigeria, chances are, you’d have internet no faster than dial-up.
So, where in the world do you get the slowest internet? And where do you get the world’s fastest internet? Let’s take a look at some figures provided by Akamai Technologies.
Top 10 countries with the world’s fastest internet
According to Akamai, the global average connection speed in the second quarter of 2013 was 3.3 Mbps, while the global average peak connection speed was 18.9 Mbps.
Average Connection Speed
1. South Korea 13.3 Mbps
2. Japan 12 Mbps
3. Switzerland 11 Mbps
4. Hong Kong 10.8 Mbps
5. Latvia 10.6 Mbps
6. Netherlands 10.1 Mbps
7 Czech Republic 9.8 Mbps
8. United States 8.7 Mbps
9. Sweden 8.4 Mbps
10. United Kingdom 8.4 Mbps
Average Peak Connection Speed
1. Hong Kong 65.1 Mbps
2. South Korea 53.3 Mbps
3. Japan 48.8 Mbps
4. Romania 47.5 Mbps
5. Singapore 45.6 Mbps
6. Latvia 44.6 Mbps
7. Switzerland 41.4 Mbps
8. Israel 40.1 Mbps
9. Belgium 39.9 Mbps
10. Taiwan 39.5 Mbps
Top 10 countries with the world’s slowest internet
Now we’ve seen the fastest, let’s look at the slowest.
1. Libya
With only one ISP (LTT), Libya tops the list of countries with the world’s slowest internet, with 52% of the total population accessing speeds below 256Kbps.
2. Nepal
Located in South East Asia, Nepal has had internet access since 1995, but only 1% of the entire population had access to it until 2005. Nepal comes in second on the world’s slowest internet list.
3. Nigeria
Number three on the list is Nigeria, with 31% of the population accessing internet speeds below 256Kbps.
4. Iran
Next up is Iran, with 30% of internet users experiencing speeds below 256Kbps. However, the residential speed is restricted to 128Kbps by the government to reduce western media presence in the country. Businesses looking for faster internet pay through the nose for the privilege.
5. India
India has more that 121 million internet users, unfortunately though, 27% of those users have to put up with speeds less than 256Kbps. Only 8.4% of the country’s overall population has access to the internet, and only 1% has access to broadband.
6. Bolivia
Located in South America, Bolivia has around one million internet users. However, 25% of them only have access to internet speeds below 256Kbps.
7. Syria
Just 0.2% of Syria’s population has access to broadband, and 19% of internet users have to deal with speeds below 256Kbps.
8. Indonesia
Indonesia has around 45 million internet users, 19% of which only have access to internet speeds less than 256Kbps.
9. Kazakhstan
An amazing 73% of internet users in Kazakhstan still use dial-up, 15% have access to ADSL, and 6% have satellite internet access.
10. Malaysia
Located in South East Asia, Malaysia is number ten on the Top 10 list of countries with the slowest internet. Almost 16% of the country’s population access the internet with speeds less than 256Kbps.
