Revealed: The European countries with the best and worst internet speeds (and the UK only comes in 15th!)

A new study has revealed the fastest internet speeds in Europe – with the UK lagging behind.

Researchers from BusinessComparison.com tested how long it takes to load a web page on mobile or desktop in 30 European countries.

Britain comes in fifteenth place in terms of loading times on mobile devices, and its performance is worse on desktop computers, where it comes in seventeenth place.

While Britain's broadband is still faster than the European average, Britons experience load times around a full second longer than countries at the top.

Experts found that Sweden tops the tables when it comes to desktop and mobile internet speeds.

Sweden ranks first in internet speed on desktop as well as mobile, while the UK lags behind

The study “analyzed the average web page loading speed across both desktop and mobile devices for each country in Europe, using the figure for how long it would take a page to load for a year,” says Sam White, executive director of digital content at BusinessComparison.com. . A visitor in the local market.

Using this method, the study found that the average time it takes to load a web page in Europe is 5.17 seconds on desktop and 8.78 seconds on mobile.

White suggests this may be due to the UK's aging mobile infrastructure, citing Ofcom data showing that only 48 per cent of homes have full-fiber broadband.

Recently, London was ranked 76th out of 200 cities with the fastest internet speed in the world.

Other studies have also shown that adventurers in the Arctic Circle enjoy ten times faster broadband than half a million households in rural Britain.

Britain ranks 15th out of 30 countries for the fastest internet speeds in the country according to a new study

For desktop computers, Sweden led with the fastest download speeds in Europe, followed by Finland, Denmark and Latvia.

Britain may rank in the middle of the table in terms of top speeds, but it is still much faster than average.

In the UK, it takes an average of 4.67 seconds to load a desktop page, and 8.26 seconds to load a mobile page.

As for desktop loading times, Sweden is by far the fastest, taking just 3.74 seconds to load a page.

Finland follows with a time of 3.84 seconds, while Denmark and Latvia tie for third place with a loading time of 4 seconds.

It takes much longer to load a page on mobile than it does on desktop – 3.6 seconds longer on average.

Loading times on mobile devices were 3.6 seconds longer on average compared to desktop computers, but Sweden still ranked first for fastest loading times.

“There are several reasons for this – while desktop browsers are able to handle media files and images, this often causes difficulty in mobile browsers due to the large size of these files,” White said.

“Mobile devices can also be slow to load internet pages if there is a poor connection in the area or if the user has a large number of web browsing tabs or even other applications open.”

However, even with slower speeds compared to desktop computers, Sweden still has the fastest mobile internet speeds with a page loading in 7.48 seconds.

In second place is Denmark, with an average time of 7.65 seconds. Followed by Finland and Latvia at 7.8 and 7.93 seconds, respectively.

At the bottom of the table is Turkey, where BusinessComparison.com says old copper wires contribute to slow desktop speeds

The bottom three countries were the same for mobile and desktop browsing, followed by Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania

At the bottom of the table is Turkey for transfer speeds on mobile and desktop, taking 10.22 seconds to load a page on desktop and 13.19 seconds on mobile.

In addition to being hit by devastating earthquakes last February that disrupted services, White says Turkey has an aging internet infrastructure.

“There are issues with Internet connectivity in Turkey in general, with much of the country relying on 30-year-old copper cables rather than more modern cables, which can transmit more data faster and further, with less signal loss,” Mr. White writes. '.

Bulgaria comes in second place for both desktop and mobile, with speeds of 9.39 and 12.89 seconds respectively.

Finally, Romania had the third lowest speed at 8.59 seconds for desktop and 11.91 seconds for mobile.