Despite Estonia touting its own horn about having a digital state and everything’s online, it’s lagging behind 21 countries in terms of the average internet speed – according to a recent analysis by a British comparison website, Estonia’s average internet speed is just 84.72 Mbps, placing the country 22nd in the world.
Cable.co.uk, a British internet service provider comparison website, analysed over 1.1 billion broadband speed tests worldwide to find out where almost every country, territory and region sits in terms of its internet speeds.
According to the analysis, Estonia has the 22nd fastest average internet speed in the world – at just 84.72 Mbps – and even though the country’s internet is the fastest in the region, countries like Hungary, Bermuda and the U.S. are ranked ahead of Estonia.
The fastest average internet speed is in the tiny British island of Jersey – 274.27 Mbps. It’s followed by Liechtenstein (211.26), Iceland (191.83) and Andorra (164.66). Estonia’s average internet speed is over three times lower than in Jersey.
When it comes to Estonia’s neighbours, only Sweden fares slightly better – at the average internet speed of 88.98 Mbps, it’s ranked 17th. Latvia is ranked 33rd (63.28), Lithuania 37th (56.17), Finland 39th (55.08) and Russia 66th (35.73).
The absolute worst average internet speed among the 224 countries and territories ranked is in Turkmenistan – 0.50 Mbps.
The average speed continues to rise
“Tracking broadband speed measurements in 224 countries and territories (221 last year) across multiple 12-month periods has allowed us to generate an overall average speed for the globe and to see how this number changes over time. The good news is that the global average speed continues rising fast,” cable.co.uk said in a statement.
According to the comparison website, the average global broadband speed measured during 2017 was 7.40 Mbps. The average global broadband speed measured during 2018 was 9.10 Mbps – a rise of 23.35%.
In 2019, the average speed measured was 11.03 Mbps – a rise of 20.65% over the previous year. In 2020, the average rose again by another 90% to 24.83 Mbps.
In 2021, the global average speed rose again by another 20% to 29.79 Mbps.
Cable.co.uk analyses the data along a 12-month period and publishes its rankings every year.
Cover: A professional woman working with her laptop in an office in Estonia. Photo by Renee Altrov.