Country Reports

United Kingdom

Highlights

  1. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland received a security preparedness score of 99.54 on the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Index. Its e-government system readiness score is 66%.
  2. As of 2023, the population of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was 68,350,000.
  3. Out of the 1000 most-visited websites, 83% can be reached on a local server or cache in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This exceeds Internet Society's target of 50%.
  4. Internet Society gives United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland an overall Internet resilience score of 55%, which means it has medium capacity to withstand unexpected faults or challenges to normal operation.
  5. Approximately 95% of the population is an Internet user.

Internet Usage Permanent link

Internet penetration

1990199520002005201020152020
95%

of the population used the Internet at least once over a 3-month period

89%
Europe average

Usage by gender

Proportion of the population that uses the Internet, by gender

  • Female: 94%
  • Male: 95%

Note: Measurement methods vary by country.

Average download speed

Based on an average of 300 users

  • 90.47 Mbps

    Broadband

  • 49.02 Mbps

    Mobile

Average Internet cost

201820192020202120222023
0.32%

of average income (GNI) is needed to cover a low-consumption basket, using at least 3G technology.

Network Infrastructure Permanent link

Broadband coverage

Broadband connections per 100 inhabitants

2010201220142016201820202022
41.24

Mobile 4G and 5G coverage

100%

has access to at least one device with 4G mobile Internet

76%

has access to at least one device with 5G mobile Internet

Active networks

The building blocks of the Internet, identified by Autonomous System (AS) numbers.

2192

active networks

International connections

Routes to the global Internet

Upstream diversity is

Very Good

More than 2 connections to the global Internet improves the ability to recover from unexpected events.

Adoption of IPv6

Jul 2020Jan 2021Jul 2021Jan 2022Jul 2022Jan 2023Jul 2023Jan 2024Jul 2024Jan 2025
45%

of users can access online resources using IPv6, the new generation of the Internet Protocol

24%
Europe average

Market Overview Permanent link

Data centers

Number of data centers in operation

245

active data centers

Internet Exchange Points

21

IXPs in United Kingdom

9
Europe average
15% of 3,145

active networks connect via an IXP

2019202020212022202320242025

Total number of IXP members in United Kingdom

Locally cached content

83%

of the top 1000 websites in United Kingdom can be accessed through an in-country server or cache

58%
Europe average

Top Internet service providers

Top Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by market share

  • BT-UK-AS BTnet UK Regional network: 24%
  • BSKYB-BROADBAND-AS: 23%
  • NTL: 18%
  • OPALTELECOM-AS TalkTalk Communications Limited: 5%
  • Vodafone: 4%

Digital public services rating

The UN's measure of a country's e-government ecosystem readiness

93%

Country-level domain use

10,260,979

domains registered using .uk, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD).

Market competition

Excellent

market competitiveness for Internet customers and end users

Security Permanent link

Global Cybersecurity Index

Estimates the ability of a country or economy to prevent and manage cyber incidents

100 / 100

Routing security practices

The use of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which connects IP prefixes to the correct autonomous system (AS)

ROA

Route origin authorization uses a cryptographic signature to certify network announcements

  • 70%
    of IPv4 prefixes protected
  • 86%
    of IPv6 prefixes protected

ROV

Route origin validation filters out route announcements

  • 29%
    of networks are using ROV to filter out invalid prefixes and networks

DNSSEC status

  • Active

DNSSEC coverage

3%

of all domains under the ccTLD are protected with DNSSEC

15%
Europe average

Adoption of DNSSEC

16%

of DNS queries are protected by DNSSEC, across all web traffic

49%
Europe average

Footnotes Permanent link

The geographic boundaries and country names shown do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Internet Society concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities. Regions and Sub-Regions are taken from the UN Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Series M, No. 49).

Pulse uses the most recent possible data from international sources. For some indicators in Pulse, the source data may be updated more frequently. For more information on how often we update individual data points, see the Indicator page.