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Where in the world has the best value broadband?

It’s no lie that we all rely on the internet in our daily lives whether, that’s scrolling through social media, streaming our favourite shows and films, or finding out the latest world news. However, you’ve probably never considered where in the world is getting true value for money on their broadband.

To find out just that, we’ve created an index ranking European countries and US states based on download speeds (Mbps) and respective monthly broadband cost. So, carry on reading to discover which locations have the best and worst value broadband, and how the UK compares.

Denmark revealed as having the best value broadband in Europe

Taking the top spot in our European index is Denmark. This is down to having the fastest download speeds in our index at 123.96 Mbps and a monthly price of €32.43 (£27.48).

Romania comes in second with the cheapest broadband cost of all the countries in Europe at €7.88 (£6.68). Not far behind in third is Hungary, followed closely by Andorra. Last but not least, the final country in Europe to secure its place in the top five within the index is Sweden.

Ireland found to have the worst value broadband

Ireland has been identified as the European country with the worst value broadband, mainly due to its high costs (€50.56 /£42.85). Second place goes to Monaco which has the most expensive internet prices in Europe at €56.10 (£47.54), which isn’t justified by its download speeds (42.71 Mbps).

Norway finds itself in third place when it comes to the worst value broadband, thanks to costly internet bills, whilst extremely slow download speeds put Cyprus in fourth spot on our list. Belgium takes fifth spot, which similar to the others, appears to have pricey broadband compared to its download speeds.

Taking a look at the UK, they just make it into the top ten worst countries in our index taking ninth place, with low download speeds of just 27.23 Mbps and an average monthly cost of £30.33.

South Dakota is the US state with the best value broadband

So, now we’ve taken a look at countries in Europe, what’s the situation like over in the United States?

When it comes to which states are getting the best value on their broadband, South Dakota comes out on top. Their position in our index is down to having the third fastest download speeds of all US states (74.12 Mbps) combined with appropriate monthly costs of $63.75 (£52.91).

Up next in second place is South Carolina which boasts slightly faster speeds of 74.54 Mbps, although this comes with a slightly higher monthly price of $65.17 (£54.09). As for the remaining spots in the top five, these are taken up by Maryland, North Dakota, and Illinois in third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.

Alaska has the most expensive broadband costs in the US

Alaska earns itself the title of the US state with the worst value for money broadband by having the most expensive monthly broadband cost of $115.04 (£95.49) combined with poor download speeds in comparison to other states (30.67 Mbps).

Ranking as the second worst US state is Vermont with low broadband speeds being the main factor.  New Jersey takes third spot mainly due to having the slowest broadband speeds of all the US states (18.65 Mbps). Rounding out the top five worst states is Oklahoma in fourth and Kentucky in fifth.

Regardless of where you live, finding a good broadband deal shouldn’t be hard and the best way to do so is by comparing broadband providers.

Brought to you by the broadband experts at Comparethemarket.

Sources and methodology

The most recent available median broadband speed and mean cost data were collected from the listed sources. The data was split into two separate tables. One looking at data for European countries, the other looking at data for US states.

On Numbeo, the data is not split at a state level. To rectify this the values from the top 3 most populated cities in each state were collected, and a mean average was produced. Where data for all of the top 3 cities was not available, data from 3 of the top 5 most populated cities was used instead (Vermont, New Mexico, Idaho, Hawaii, Utah).

Broadband costs were collected in either GBP or USD, and were converted to GBP and EUR using the following conversion rates:
1 GBP = 1.18 EUR
1 USD = 0.83 GBP

The values for each factor were then indexed, to give a value between 0 and 1.

Broadband speed was indexed by giving the highest value the highest indexed score, and the lowest value the lowest indexed score. 

Broadband cost was indexed by giving the highest value the lowest indexed score, and the lowest value the highest indexed score.

The indexed values were then summed, and multiplied by 5, to give a total score out of 10. The countries and states were then ranked from highest to lowest based on this score, with a higher score producing a higher ranking. Data and conversion rate correct as of 09/2022.