As of May 2025, Singapore had the fastest fixed broadband internet worldwide, with a median download speed of 372.02 Mbps. France ranked second at 315.38 Mbps, while the UAE followed in third. Fixed internet connections deliver broadband to a home, office, or other fixed premises, with fiber connections offering the best quality service.

Countries with the highest speeds demonstrate examples of efficient infrastructure and investment in digital technologies, providing their citizens with fast and stable internet. In contrast, countries with low speeds face numerous challenges, especially economic ones.

As of October 2025, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates recorded the highest internet penetration rates worldwide, each reaching ** percent. In comparison, the global internet penetration rate during the same period stood at approximately **** percent. Most connected regions According to the most recent observations, Northern Europe ranked first among global regions by connectivity rate. The share of the population accessing the internet in this region was nearly ** percent. Western Europe ranked second, followed by Northern America. Overall, the internet reach was higher than ** percent across all European regions, as well as Northern and Southern Americas. Unconnected populations Despite having the biggest online audiences worldwide, India and China are also the markets with the highest number of individuals not connected to the web. Regarding the share of population without internet access in worldwide markets, North Korea ranks first, as the internet in the country remains blocked for most of the general public as of April 2025. Burundi had **** percent of its population unconnected, followed by Chad, with **** percent.

As of June 2024, Qatar had the fastest average mobile internet connection worldwide, nearly 335 Mbps. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) followed, registering average median speed above 323 Mbps. Fixed-connection speeds around the world When it comes to fixed broadband connections, Singapore tops the list of countries by average connection speed. Internet users in Singapore achieve an average fixed broadband connection speed of 242.01 Mbps, slightly faster than the 222.49 Mbps achieved in Chile, the second-placed country on the speed rankings. 5G and 6G – the future of mobile broadband In countries where it is in use, 5G is already bringing faster mobile internet connection speeds than ever before. In Saudi Arabia for example, the average 4G connection speed sits at 28.9 Mbps, and this speed jumps to 414.2 Mbps on a 5G connection. Now that 5G is commercially available, researchers have already turned their attention to 6G. Operating at a higher spectrum band, 6G will allow connections several times faster than 5G. User experienced data rates of 5G sit at 100 Mbps, and this speed is expected to climb to 1,000 Mbps on 6G connections. 6G is expected to not only provide faster speeds, but also enable more devices to connect to a network without causing congestion as it has a connection density ten times greater than that of 5G.

The ranking of internet costs in various countries shows significant differences, driven by economic, political, and infrastructure factors.

As of October 2025, China has the world’s largest online population, with approximately 1.3 billion internet users. India, currently the most populous nation, ranks second with about 1.03 billion users. The United States follows in third place. Worldwide internet usage As of October 2025, there are more than six billion internet users worldwide. However, user distribution varies significantly by region. In 2024, Eastern Asia alone accounted for 1.34 billion internet users, while Africa and the Middle East reported considerably lower figures. As expected, urban areas also exhibited higher rates of internet access compared to rural regions. Internet use in China It is no surprise that China ranks first among countries with the most internet users. Driven by rapid economic development and a strong cultural embrace of technology, 91.6 percent of China’s estimated 1.4 billion residents are online. As of the third quarter of 2024, about 91.8 percent of Chinese internet users were active on WeChat, the country’s most popular social platform. During the same period, Chinese internet users spent an average of five hours and 33 minutes online each day.

The global internet service providers (ISP) industry has grown steadily over the past five years, shaped by rising demand for high-capacity connectivity and intensified competition from new market entrants. Rapid adoption of remote work, streaming services, online learning and smart devices has driven households and enterprises to rely more heavily on broadband. Governments have supported expansion with subsidies for rural coverage and mandates to improve affordability, which encouraged fiber and wireless investments. Meanwhile, competition has increased as satellite broadband and regional fiber operators gained scale, challenging incumbents and lowering market barriers. Industry revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 1.0% to $966.6 billion over the five years to 2025, including an increase of 2.6% in 2025 alone. The core theme during this period has been balancing heavy infrastructure expansion with sustainable service models while accommodating consumer demand for reliable access. Profit throughout this period has been under pressure as capital expenditures into fiber and 5G deployments remained high. Established players faced narrowing margins due to regulatory oversight, increased competition and the need to offer affordable service tiers. Despite these cost challenges, providers identified new profit opportunities through higher-margin digital services. Bundled strategies combining internet with streaming, smart home security or cloud-based solutions created recurring revenues and improved retention. On the enterprise side, managed connectivity platforms, cybersecurity services and cloud-to-edge solutions provided additional income streams and differentiated value. These offerings helped shift reliance away from traditional broadband alone, creating stronger profit models even as intense competition eroded per-user margins. Overall, the ability to leverage new services alongside connectivity has proven critical in stabilizing profit performance while supporting industry growth.The next five years are expected to bring stronger growth as digital ecosystems expand and advanced technologies become central to operations. Increasing reliance on AI, automation and predictive analytics will help providers lower costs, improve service reliability and personalize offerings across households and enterprises. Adoption of next-generation use cases, from smart cities and telehealth to immersive entertainment, will expand beyond pilot programs and create new revenue potential. Providers that adapt business models to balance affordability, security and service innovation will be best positioned as customer expectations rise. Industry revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 2.2% to $1.1 trillion over the next five years, reflecting faster momentum than the previous period and signaling a stronger future outlook driven by integrated digital services and efficient infrastructure deployment.

As of May 2025, Amazon was the biggest internet company worldwide with a market cap of over ************ U.S. dollars Second-ranked Alphabet had a market capitalization of **** trillion U.S. dollars. The end of the 1990s in the United States saw the rise of a great number of internet companies, also called online companies or a variety of the name “dot com,” where the “.com” domain is derived from the word commercial. At the time, such startups were merely riding the wave of early internet business, but had little capital and perhaps one good idea. Few companies have survived the burst of the dot com bubble and even fewer have managed to become internationally successful. A few notable exceptions are American companies such as Google (founded in 1998), Amazon (founded in 1994) or eBay Inc. (founded in 1995), and the Chinese online giant Alibaba (founded in 1998), which have come to be some of the largest internet companies in the world. One of the largest internet companies worldwide is currently Alphabet, the parent company of Google, with a market capitalization of **** trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2025. Having started as a PhD project at Stanford University, the Google project slowly gained traction and is now the number one search engine in the world, with a market share of ** percent on the search engine market. Due to a number of high profile acquisitions, Google has expanded its portfolio beyond search, to include the video content sharing site YouTube, the digital app platform Google Play Store, the webmail service Gmail and the web browser Google Chrome, to only name a few. In October 2015, Google reorganized itself into a newly created parent company, the multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc. The biggest internet companies in terms of their workforce are currently Amazon, Alphabet and Meta.

In 2025, Iceland was the worldwide leader in terms of internet freedom. The country ranked first with 94 index points in the Freedom House Index, where each country received a numerical score from 100 (the freest) to 0 (the least free). Estonia ranked second with 91 index points, followed by Chile, with a score of 87 index points. Internet restrictions worldwide The decline of internet freedom in 2022 is mainly linked to political conflicts in different parts of the world. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government intensified its attempts to control the online content in the country. The government placed restrictions on three different U.S.-based social media platforms at the same time, X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These restrictions made it to the top of the longest-lasting limitations on the web in 2022. Social protests rose in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. The Iranian government decided to shut down the internet and various social media platforms in an attempt to minimize the communication between the protesters. In 2022, 11 new internet restrictions were recorded in Iran. However, residents in the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir saw the highest number of new internet restrictions, which amounted to more than double the ones in Iran. The impact of internet shutdowns In 2022, the economic impact of internet restrictions worldwide reached an estimated 23.79 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the highest financial losses due to internet shutdowns were caused by limitations in Russia, and more than seven thousand hours of restricted various online services had an economic impact of 21.59 billion U.S. dollars. The restrictions impacted around 113 million people in the country. Myanmar placed the most extended restriction on internet services, lasting 17,520 hours in total. Similar restrictions in India affected over 120 million people. 

The Top Websites in the World

How They Change Over Time

About this dataset

This dataset consists of the top 50 most visited websites in the world, as well as the category and principal country/territory for each site. The data provides insights into which sites are most popular globally, and what type of content is most popular in different parts of the world

How to use the dataset

This dataset can be used to track the most popular websites in the world over time. It can also be used to compare website popularity between different countries and categories

Research Ideas

• To track the most popular websites in the world over time
• To see how website popularity changes by region
• To find out which website categories are most popular

Acknowledgements

Dataset by Alexa Internet, Inc. (2019), released on Kaggle under the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (ODC-PDDL)

License

License: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) - Public Domain Dedication No Copyright - You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. See Other Information.

Columns

File: df_1.csv | Column name | Description | |:--------------------------------|:---------------------------------------------------------------------| | Site | The name of the website. (String) | | Domain Name | The domain name of the website. (String) | | Category | The category of the website. (String) | | Principal country/territory | The principal country/territory where the website is based. (String) |

CONTENT

This is a list of Internet companies by revenue and market capitalization. The list is limited to dot-com companies, defined as a company that does the majority of its business on the Internet, with annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion. It excludes Internet service providers or other information technology companies. For a more general list of technology companies, see list of largest technology companies by revenue. This list is incomplete and does not include some dot-com companies acquired by incumbent brick and mortar firms to expand the distribution channels

As of October 2025, India had the largest offline population worldwide, with more than 440 million people lacking internet access. Pakistan ranked second, with approximately 139.39 million people not connected to the internet. Despite these figures, both countries also ranked among those with the highest numbers of internet users globally. Internet access in Africa In 2023, Africa lagged behind other global regions regarding internet penetration rate, as only 37 percent of the continent’s population accessed the web. In contrast, around 91 percent of Europe’s population were internet users. This is heavily influenced by the infrastructure development in the region. However, some improvements are forecasted, as by 2028, the internet penetration rate in Africa will be at an estimated 48.15 percent. Global internet access challenges: disruptions and restrictions Government internet shutdowns around the world are another challenge for internet access. Between 2015 and the first half of 2023, 172 local internet connection disruptions occurred due to protests globally. Moreover, according to a 2023report on internet freedom, almost four out of ten global internet users were deprived of essential freedoms on online platforms. In 2023, 76 new restrictions on internet usage were implemented worldwide. Asia led in imposing these restrictions, accounting for approximately 55 cases across various countries in the region.

List of Top Disciplines of International Journal of Internet and Distributed Systems sorted by citations.

Context

A listing of the top 1-million websites according to Alexa.com.

Content

Rank and Site name

Acknowledgements

Fork from: https://github.com/mozilla/cipherscan/tree/master/top1m

List of Top Institutions of International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions sorted by citations.

List of Top Institutions of International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology sorted by citations.

The Internet of Bodies (IoB) market represents a revolutionary intersection of technology and human physiology, where connected devices and sensors are integrated into or worn on the body, enabling unprecedented data collection and health monitoring. This burgeoning sector is reshaping industries such as healthcare,

List of Top Schools of International Journal of Internet Education sorted by citations.

List of Top Journals of International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management sorted by citations.

AboutSpeedtest data is used today by commercial fixed and mobile network operators around the world to inform network buildout, improve global Internet quality, and increase Internet accessibility. Government regulators such as the United States Federal Communications Commission and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission use Speedtest data to hold telecommunications entities accountable and direct funds for rural and urban connectivity development. Ookla licenses data to NGOs and educational institutions to fulfill its mission: to help make the internet better, faster and more accessible for everyone. Ookla hopes to further this mission by distributing the data to make it easier for individuals and organizations to use it for the purposes of bridging the social and economic gaps between those with and without modern Internet access.DataOverviewTilesHundreds of millions of Speedtests are taken on the Ookla platform each month. In order to create a manageable dataset, we aggregate raw data into tiles. The size of a data tile is defined as a function of "zoom level" (or "z"). At z=0, the size of a tile is the size of the whole world. At z=1, the tile is split in half vertically and horizontally, creating 4 tiles that cover the globe. This tile-splitting continues as zoom level increases, causing tiles to become exponentially smaller as we zoom into a given region. By this definition, tile sizes are actually some fraction of the width/height of Earth according to Web Mercator projection (EPSG:3857). As such, tile size varies slightly depending on latitude, but tile sizes can be estimated in meters.For the purposes of these layers, a zoom level of 16 (z=16) is used for the tiling. This equates to a tile that is approximately 610.8 meters by 610.8 meters at the equator (18 arcsecond blocks). The geometry of each tile is represented in WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) in the tile field.The data can be found at: https://github.com/teamookla/ookla-open-dataUpdate CadenceThe tile aggregates start in Q1 2019 and go through the most recent quarter. They will be updated shortly after the conclusion of the quarter.Esri ProcessingThis layer is a best available aggregation of the original Ookla dataset. This means that for each tile that data is available, the most recent data is used. So for instance, if data is available for a tile for Q2 2019 and for Q4 2020, the Q4 2020 data is awarded to the tile. The default visualization for the layer is the "broadband index". The broadband index is a bivariate index based on both the average download speed and the average upload speed. For Mobile, the score is indexed to a standard of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload. A tile with average Speedtest results of 25/3 Mbps is awarded 100 points. Tiles with average speeds above 25/3 are shown in green, tiles with average speeds below this are shown in fuchsia. For Fixed, the score is indexed to a standard of 100 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. A tile with average Speedtest results of 100/20 Mbps is awarded 100 points. Tiles with average speeds above 100/20 are shown in green, tiles with average speeds below this are shown in fuchsia.Tile AttributesEach tile contains the following adjoining attributes:The year and the quarter that the tests were performed.The average download speed of all tests performed in the tile, represented in megabits per second.The average upload speed of all tests performed in the tile, represented in megabits per second.The average latency of all tests performed in the tile, represented in millisecondsThe number of tests taken in the tile.The number of unique devices contributing tests in the tile.The quadkey representing the tile.QuadkeysQuadkeys can act as a unique identifier for the tile. This can be useful for joining data spatially from multiple periods (quarters), creating coarser spatial aggregations without using geospatial functions, spatial indexing, partitioning, and an alternative for storing and deriving the tile geometry.LayersThere are two layers:Ookla_Mobile_Tiles - Tiles containing tests taken from mobile devices with GPS-quality location and a cellular connection type (e.g. 4G LTE, 5G NR).Ookla_Fixed_Tiles - Tiles containing tests taken from mobile devices with GPS-quality location and a non-cellular connection type (e.g. WiFi, ethernet).The layers are set to draw at scales 1:3,000,000 and larger.Time Period and Update FrequencyLayers are generated based on a quarter year of data (three months) and files will be updated and added on a quarterly basis. A /year=2020/quarter=1/ period, the first quarter of the year 2020, would include all data generated on or after 2020-01-01 and before 2020-04-01.