World Top 10 Most Internet Addicted Countries in 2014
10. Switzerland: 85.2% of population -A 2012 Google study found Switzerland has among the fastest internet connections in the world, and while you'd think older generations have been slow to embrace it as an essential skill of modern life, these figures suggest otherwise. Nearly a third of the Swiss population is over 55 yet only 15% of the country hasn't used the web in the last year. Considering that rate is 10% higher than just four years ago, Switzerland may be totally plugged in within a decade or two.
9. Canada: 86.8% of population -Canadian internet addicts suffer the agonizingly First World problem of having some of the worst connections in the developed world. A recent Net Index ranked Canada's upload speed at 5.67 Mbps, far below the global average of 7.6 Mbps, and while some regions do have much faster access available, the country's service providers (all two of them) offer exceptionally uncompetitive rates.
8. United Kingdom: 87% of population -The UK was one of the first countries to develop a modern web infrastructure, and the .uk country code itself has been active since the mid-80s. As you can imagine, then, citizens have had plenty of time to get outright addicted to browsing. Unlike Canada, the broadband service market in the UK is said to uphold strong competition thanks to regulatory measures that provide competing providers equal access to better connectivity.
7. New Zealand: 89.5% of population -It seems New Zealand has gotten a little self-conscience about having the 46th highest download speed in the world. The government currently funds a huge web initiative to bring fibre internet to 75% of the population by the end of the decade, which could see their speeds increasing by up to ten times. They also plan to take broadband to virtually all rural users and reach a connectivity rate of 97.8% by 2019, adding millions of new addicts to the already considerable hoard.
6. Finland: 91% of population -Like the UK, Finland was one of the first countries to develop a comprehensive web infrastructure and establish their own country code, .fi. Finnish policy makers have long kept web access a priority issue, as the first country to declare not just broadband access, but fast broadband access a human right in 2009. Telecom companies have since been required by law to provide all 5.2 million citizens with a connection running at, at least, 1 megabit per second.
5. Denmark: 93% of population -Google's 2012 study found Denmark has the sixth fastest desktop internet speed tied with Switzerland, and the second best mobile speed in the world behind South Korea. In a country with 93% of the population online, internet censorship has become a growing issue concerned with explicit material featuring children, drug sales, unlicensed online gambling, and, perhaps less unanimously concerning, file-sharing websites like The Pirate Bay.
4. Netherlands: 93% of population -With an average speed of 3.3 seconds per webpage, the Netherlands boasts the fastest desktop internet speeds among the internet-addicted countries. After the country's 2010 initiatives, the availability of fibre internet exploded from around 700,000 homes to over 7 million, across more than half the country's municipalities.
3. Sweden: 94% of population -94% of Swedish residents currently access the web, with desktop and mobile speeds ranking 8th and 5th in the world respectively. Sweden remains renowned for its free and uncensored internet access, hence serving as the home base for hugely influential and polarising torrent site The Pirate Bay for a time.
2. Norway: 95% of population -In 1971, via satellite connection to the US' ARPANET defense project and progenitor of the modern World Wide Web, Norway was the very first non-English speaking country online. As you'd probably expect, today the country ranks among the top 10 desktop and mobile internet speeds globally. Thanks to the dissemination of fibre-optic broadband, there are now remote communities here that lack running water in near-Arctic climates, yet enjoy some of the fastest internet connections in the world. Only 5% of the Norwegia
