Here's How Internet Speed In The US Compares To The Rest Of The World

The internet has connected the world like never before. Today, you can seamlessly video chat with people on the other side of the globe with little latency. Heck, depending on your job, you can work while overseas — just use a few essential apps for remote work and you're set. However, we are still limited by internet speeds. You'd think the United States would lead the world in this regard given its role in the development and popularization of the internet, but you'd be mistaken.

Since the U.S. is the fourth-largest country on the planet by total area (third largest in population), internet providers have a lot of ground to cover and people to service. As a result, populations sign up for different services and packages from multiple internet providers, and some are better than others. This system creates inconsistent internet speeds depending on location. According to Speedtest, the median internet speed in the U.S. is 186.64 Mbps. Meanwhile, World Population Review put that value at 302.68 Mbps (as of 2025). Despite the difference in calculations, these sites agree that the U.S. isn't the fastest.

Both websites place numerous countries ahead of the United States — however, the precise order isn't consistent. For instance, Speedtest says Bulgaria has the spot just above the U.S. on its internet speed rankings at 203.13 Mbps, yet World Population Review places Macau right above the U.S. with its average speed of 312.37 Mbps (again as of 2025). Meanwhile, Speedtest places Vietnam above the U.S. at 219.93 Mbps, whereas World Population Review puts that country below the U.S. at 273.64 Mbps. At least both sites concur that the United Arab Emirates boasts some of the fastest internet speeds on the planet — 365.24 and 675.51 Mbps, respectively.

In the spirit of fairness, a range of 186.64 to 302.68 Mbps is enough for most tasks. Speedtest claims you only need 100 Mbps to stream movies and shows in 4K — keep this in mind before you purchase any 4K streaming sticks. If you regularly download 100+ GB games, however, you might want 200 Mbps or faster. But what if you want to upload big files?

While many sites and services measure internet using download speeds — all of the numbers in the previous section consisted of download speeds — upload speeds are the equally important flip side of that same coin. If you want to keep large or numerous files safe with cloud storage apps and services, you need fast upload speeds. Generally speaking, upload speeds always trail behind download speeds, and the U.S. trails behind countless other countries in this metric, too.

When Ooma (a telecommunications company specializing in making phone calls using the internet) tested the average internet speeds of 20 countries, the company found that the U.S. came in dead last for upload speeds, falling just short of a 50 Mbps average. Even nations with slower download speeds left the U.S. in the dust for uploads. According to Ooma's measurements, Iceland just barely lost to the U.S. in average download speeds (both were below 250 Mbps), but its upload speeds were around 200 Mbps, giving Iceland some of the fastest upload speeds on the planet. The only nation that was faster was Singapore, which came in first place for Ooma's average download speed tests.

If you plan to vacation in a foreign country, don't let internet speeds serve as a determining factor. Go for the sights, food, festivities, and souvenirs. But you probably will need the internet to find your way around, book restaurant reservations, and purchase museum tickets. The good news is you can take advantage of faster internet speeds while overseas, but your mileage may vary.

Unless you bring your laptop with you while on vacation, you can only connect to the internet with smart devices, and their internet speeds vary depending on your connection type. All the internet speeds listed so far have been via broadband connections, so you can use them if you connect via Wi-Fi, but your opportunities to do so will be limited. You might get a taste of the foreign nation's internet speeds if you use the internet in your hotel, but otherwise, you will be limited to whatever you can scrounge with mobile networks.

To be fair, plenty of countries have faster mobile internet speeds than the United States. World Population Review placed the median mobile speeds in the U.S. (in 2025) around 185 Mbps. Countries like South Korea and the United Arab Emirates left it in the dust with 240.28 Mbps and 672.68 Mbps, respectively. However, sometimes countries with faster broadband speeds lagged behind the U.S. in the mobile department — France beat the U.S. with its 346.04 Mbps internet speed, but its median mobile speeds were slightly slower at 147.49. Just keep in mind that your phone's performance will vary depending on the traveling eSim card you use, so always do your research before you make any plans.