Last month, Nepal became the 19th country to pass 50% IPv6 capability. In light of this achievement and the 14th anniversary of the World IPv6 Launch this month, let’s look back at the last decade of IPv6 deployment.
Belgium led all countries, for the most part, from 2014 to early 2018, during which time it became the first country to pass 50% IPv6 capability briefly in November 2016.
While the US often traded places with Belgium during the latter part of this span, it didn’t exceed 50% IPv6 capability until September 2018, when it became the third country to do so.
India was the second country to break through the 50% barrier, slowly rising from 14% capability in September 2016 to reach the milestone in April 2018. This rise was primarily thanks to one operator, Reliance Jio, which only entered the market in 2015 and was forced to adopt IPv6 from the start as large numbers of IPv4 addresses were no longer available.
Between October and December 2020, Malaysia and Germany became the fourth and fifth countries to pass 50%, respectively.
Over the next 14 months, only India, Belgium, and Malaysia retained greater than 50% IPv6 capability.
In February 2022, China and Saudi Arabia became the sixth and seventh countries to surpass the 50% mark, respectively, and were joined by the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat a month later. However, the latter quickly dropped below 40% within a month. France and Greece were the ninth and tenth countries to join the +50% club in April 2022 and were joined by Uruguay, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan by the end of the year.
Over the last 18 months, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Myanmar, Peru, and most recently Nepal exceeded the milestone. Which leads us to the question…
Which Country is Next?
Looking at the list of countries below currently registering greater than 50% IPv6 capability, we can see several that have broken through this mark before (Hungary, Japan, Myanmar, Peru, and Sri Lanka).
According to some measurements, these countries continue to exceed 50%, which is a product of the variability of these types of measurements. This is particularly true of Pulse’s IPv6 measurements, which are a culmination of IPv6 measurement data taken from Akamai, APNIC Labs, Facebook, and Google.
These aside, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates are the leading contenders for the next country to pass the 50% milestone.
| Country | Current IPv6 capability | Has exceeded 50% before |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 49.24% | Yes |
| Sri Lanka | 49.11% | Yes |
| Peru | 48.82% | Yes |
| Hungary | 48.56% | Yes |
| Guatemala | 47.77% | No |
| Brazil | 47.53% | No |
| Mexico | 47.41% | No |
| Thailand | 46.06% | No |
| Myanmar | 45.74% | Yes |
| United Arab Emirates | 45.68% | No |
What is IPv6
IPv6 is the latest version of the fundamental technology (Internet Protocol) that powers the Internet. The previous version, IPv4, is still in operation on many networks worldwide but can only support an Internet of a few billion devices. By contrast, IPv6 can support an Internet of billions of billions of devices and provide enough address space to meet the needs of the growing Internet for decades to come. Simply put, the Internet has outgrown its original design, and IPv6 is the solution.
Internet Society Pulse presents measurements of IPv6 adoption to raise awareness of the different levels of IPv6 adoption in other countries and networks around the globe and to encourage greater adoption of this critical enabling technology. Learn more.