USA Falls Out of Top 10 Average Internet Speeds Globally

After years of ranking between 8th-10th, the US has fallen back out of the top 10 to 11th on average internet speeds rankings. This is while Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Switzerland have remained as consistent top performers in global internet speed tests over the past decade, and other countries that have lost notable ranking over the past several years include Canada, Japan, Australia, Norway, and Finland.

As global internet speed averages continue to climb from 2010 to 2020, and mobile broadband reaching record highs of global adoption, not only have average speeds increased, but global penetration has spread so far that now over half of the entire world’s population are considered active users. 

In the last 24 months, the United States had been ranking between 8th and 10th for top average internet speeds in the world, only recently falling out of the average top 10 to the 11th position.

Considering that broadband expansion and improvement have been a central focus for US government agencies, the implementation of certain aspects of the plan has been lacking in some cases. Some reports said that up to 50 million US households only have access up to 25 Mbps, less than 25% of the national average.

Some reports indicate broadband speeds have decreased for millions of US households during the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact that can indicate the recent drop in average speeds in the USA. 

You can find in the attachment below the current global internet speed averages, extrapolated from data provided by international Internet Service Providers, and the speed tests executed by speedtest.net on a country-by-country basis. 

In the closing of the analysis, Decisiondata said that ‘it’s, of course, a positive signal to rank well on these charts, but it is also important to recognize that overall, internet speeds are improving around the globe.’