Nowadays, when you’re traveling, one thing that didn’t even exist in the past matters a lot: the internet speed. We always need to be online, to be connected – and if you are a digital nomad, a solid internet connection is a must for you to be able to work.
If you’re planning to travel to Europe, you definitely want to know which are the countries with the fastest internet here, as well as the ones with the slowest speeds.
More and more people are now choosing their next destination based not only on the beauty of the places or the prices, but also the speed of the internet connections. Which is a good thing if you’re planning to travel to Europe!
The countries here do pretty well when it comes to the average internet speed, most countries offering at least decent internet connections, but there are some doing a lot better than others – and we’re going to talk about them all here.
We’re going to check out which are the countries with the fastest internet in Europe, as well as those with the slowest, but also see what “fast” and “slow” internet means here.
This article was initially published back in 2016, when the data was much different of what we have today. For comparison sake, I will leave below the screenshot showing internet speeds in Europe in 2016, courtesy of this Reddit post:
Things have changed in the past few years and many countries are now offering amazing connections of up to 1Gbps. However, things become a bit more difficult when you have to average things out.
Larger cities in general have better connections (and more options) that smaller towns and villages. So even though in Romania it’s easy and cheap to get a 1Gbps fiber internet plan in any city, most of the villages wouldn’t even beat the internet speed that Croatia had back in 2016.
This is very important to know, because it is how things are in all countries. So if the average shown below is impressive, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get such speed anywhere in the country.
But this is still better than nothing, and I am sure you’re curious to see how things stand today, in 2020. So without further ado, let’s check out the winners and the losers.
Countries with the fastest internet in Europe (2020)
1. Romania: 151.87 Mbps
2. Iceland: 124.54 Mbps
3. Hungary: 108.42 Mbps
4. Sweden: 106.39 Mbps
5. Denmark: 106 Mbps
6. Switzerland: 104.17 Mbps
7. Spain: 102.36 Mbps
8. Luxembourg: 101 Mbps
9. Norway: 99.18 Mbps
10. France: 97.94 Mbps
Countries with the slowest intenet in Europe (2020)
1. Turkey: 24.28 Mbps
2. Georgia: 24.38 Mbps
3. Greece: 26.31 Mbps
4. Cyprus: 26.79 Mbps
5. North Macedonia: 26.91 Mbps
6. Albania: 28.40
7. Bosnia & Herzegovina: 31.30 Mbps
8. Croatia: 35.26 Mbps
9. Kosovo: 43.53 Mbps
10. Ukraine: 52.06 Mbps
Romania remains one of the best country in Europe in terms of broadband internet speeds, but the Scandinavian countries have climbed a lot recently.
Also, I have to say that in most countries in Europe (even in the bottom ten), in the large cities you will get much better internet speeds than in the rest of the country. So you shouldn’t have major problems if you choose the major cities as your next destination.
It is interesting to see how much Hungary has climbed the charts, definitely helped by the fact that it has become a real digital nomad hub: I loved Hungary, especially Budapest, which is one of my favorite cities in the world!
It’s unfortunate – but expected – to see some very popular destinations for digital nomads at the bottom of the list: countries like Greece, Croatia and Georgia are very popular hubs for DNs, but apparently they can’t keep up with the demands.
Still, comparing the data today to the data in 2016, things are much improved. And, by all means, even the lowest ranked country still offers speeds high enough to perform almost any activity that requires internet, and do so without any hiccups or problems.
Mobile internet speed in Europe
Another important thing to note is that the speed of mobile internet has some completely different rankings – the ones above are for broadband internet connections.
But if you plan to use your phone mostly – or you want to get a mobile data plan or sim card for when you are in Europe, we have a completely different picture. Here is some data regarding the fastest and slowest mobile internet speeds on the continent:
1. Netherlands (75.32 Mbps)
2. Bulgaria (68.18)
3. Norway (66.87)
4. Albania (54.32)
5. Switzerland (54.22)
Slowest mobile internet speeds are in Belarus (14.73 Mbps), Ukraine (23.83), Georgia (24.12) and Poland (30.78).
Interesting enough, the top placed in broadband internet speed, Romania, only has an average of 37.09 Mbps on mobile, further showing us that if a country has fast broadband connections, they won’t automatically deliver on the mobile internet side.
Just look at the fastest 5 countries above: it’s a completely different set of countries ranking there.
Hopefully the list above makes it a lot easier for you to understand which countries in Europe have great, fast internet and which don’t. In some cases, slow speeds can definitely prove to be deal breakers, but that is up for you to decide.
What do you say? Do you consider internet speed when choosing your next destination or internet doesn’t matter that much for you?
Resources & data via GPUNerd & Speedtest.net.