These Are the Countries with the Fastest Internet Speed in Europe (Slowest Internet too!)

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 of them offering at least decent internet speeds, even though some are doing much better than others. But we’re going to talk about them all today!

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 numbers were much different than what we have today. For comparison sake – and to see how quickly the tech world evolves – 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. But averaging the numbers will result in some strange values in some cases.

This is caused by the fact that in most places, 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 really be able to match the internet speed in the country back in 2016.

This is very important to know, because it is how things are, more or less, everywhere. 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 2021. So without further ado, let’s check out the winners and the losers. We’ll start with the broadband (cable) internet speed.

Countries with the fastest internet in Europe (2021)

1. Switzerland: 180.17 Mbps
2. Denmark: 170.10 Mbps
3. Romania: 160.87 Mbps
4. Andorra: 160.17 Mbps
5. Iceland: 158.52 Mbps
6. Hungary: 150.42 Mbps
7. Sweden: 140.39 Mbps
8. Spain: 138.85 Mbps
9. Malta: 120.16 Mbps
10. France: 118.94 Mbps
11. Norway: 110.22 Mbps
12. Liechtenstein: 110.11 Mbps
13. Luxembourg: 108.68 Mbps
14. Netherlands: 102.43 Mbps
15. Germany: 100.11 Mbps
16. Portugal: 91.77 Mbps
17. Finland: 90.12 Mbps
18. Poland: 85.37 Mbps
19. Belgium: 84.89 Mbps
20. Moldova: 83.31 Mbps
21. Lithuania: 82.56 Mbps
22. Latvia: 82.71 Mbps
23. Ireland: 82.17 Mbps
24. Slovakia: 81.63 Mbps
25. Slovenia: 77.25 Mbps
26. United Kingdom 75.87 Mbps
27. Czechia: 62.88 Mbps
28. Serbia: 59.11 Mbps
29. Ukraine: 57.06 Mbps
30. Italy: 56.89 Mbps
31. Blugaria: 53.11 Mbps

Countries with the slowest intenet in Europe (2021)

Now let’s check out the 10 countries in Europe that offer the slowest internet speeds in 20201!

1. Turkey: 22.10 Mbps
2. Georgia: 24.98 Mbps
3. Greece: 26.31 Mbps
4. North Macedonia: 26.91 Mbps
5. Bosnia & Herzegovina: 31.30 Mbps
6. Kosovo: 37.53 Mbps
7. Albania: 38.40 Mbps
9. Croatia: 45.26 Mbps
10. Cyprus: 46.79 Mbps

As you can see, Romania, which was once the fastest in the world in terms of broadband internet connection speeds has now fallen behind a bit. But these are averages only, as you can still get a 1Gbps plan in Romania in all major cities (and cheaply, too!).

Another interesting thing to note is that countries that depend a lot on Internet nowadays (like Malta and Estonia) have climbed quite a bit even though Cyprus, which is in a similar situations sits toward the bottom.

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 larger cities as your next destination and the speeds will probably be much above the averages.

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.

Even more surprising is, in my opinion, the fact that countries ranking pretty low in terms of cable internet speed rank really high in terms of mobile internet speed.

Here is some data regarding the fastest and slowest mobile internet speeds on the continent:

1. Norway (77.87 Mbps)
2. Netherlands (75.32 Mbps)
3. Switzerland (70.22)
4. Bulgaria (68.18)
5. Croatia (63.20)
6. Albania (61.32)
7. Denmark (61.23)
8. Belgium (60.08)
9. Sweden (59.18)
10. Cyprus (58.73)

Slowest mobile internet speeds are in Belarus (15.13 Mbps), Ukraine (24.83), Georgia (30.12) and Ireland (30.78).

Interesting enough, the third placed in broadband internet speed, Romania, only has an average of 38.09 Mbps on mobile, further showing us that if a country has fast broadband connections, they won’t automatically deliver the same on the mobile internet side.

Just look at the fastest 10 countries above: it’s a completely different set of countries ranking there.

Internet speed in Europe: conclusions

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 in the end.

It looks that countries like Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia score low in both categories, meaning that it won’t be easy to have a solid internet connection in those countries. But all the others offer decent speeds either on mobile or broadband.

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 Wikipedia, Cable.co.uk & Speedtest.net.