Saudi Arabia

Highlights

  1. Out of the 1000 most-visited websites, 36% can be reached on a local server or cache in Saudi Arabia. This falls below Internet Society's target of 50%.
  2. Internet Society gives Saudi Arabia an overall Internet resilience score of 63%, which means it has medium capacity to withstand unexpected faults or challenges to normal operation.
  3. Approximately 100% of the population is an Internet user.
  4. Saudi Arabia received a security preparedness score of 100.00 on the 2024 Global Cybersecurity Index. Its e-government system readiness score is 79.60.
  5. As of 2024, the population of Saudi Arabia was 35,300,280.
ccTLD
.sa
Flag of Saudi Arabia
Region
Asia
Sub-region
Western Asia
Population
35,300,280
UN classification(s)
  • High income country

Internet Usage Permanent link

Internet penetration

100%

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

62%
Asia average

Usage by gender

Proportion of the population that uses the Internet, by gender

Note: Measurement methods vary by country.

  • Female: 100%
  • Male: 100%

Average download speed

Based on an average of 300 users

  • 4.80 Mbps
    Broadband
  • 4.87 Mbps
    Mobile

Average Internet cost

< 1%

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

Network Infrastructure Permanent link

Mobile 4G and 5G coverage

  • 98%
    has access to at least one device with 4G mobile Internet
  • 77%
    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.

164
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

64%
of users can access online resources using IPv6, the new generation of the Internet Protocol
42%
Asia average

Market Overview Permanent link

Data centers

Number of data centers in operation

20

active data centers

Internet Exchange Points

5

IXPs in Saudi Arabia

5
Asia average
83% of 164

active networks connect via an IXP

Total number of IXP members in Saudi Arabia

Locally cached content

36%

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

51%
Asia average

Top Internet service providers

Top Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by market share

  • Saudi Telecom Company JSC: 58%
  • Etihad Etisalat, a joint stock company: 22%
  • Zain Saudi Arabia: 14%
  • Integrated Telecom Co. Ltd: 4%
  • Etihad Atheeb Telecom Company: 1%

Market competition

Poor

market competitiveness for Internet customers and end users

Digital public services rating

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

97.25

Country-level domain use

74,825

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

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

  • 98%
    of IPv4 prefixes protected
  • 78%
    of IPv6 prefixes protected

ROV

Route origin validation filters out route announcements

  • 11%
    of networks are using ROV to filter out invalid prefixes and networks

DNSSEC status

  • Active

DNSSEC coverage

2%

of all domains under the ccTLD are protected with DNSSEC

< 1%
Asia average

Adoption of DNSSEC

99%

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

35%
Asia 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.