Countries by Fixed telephone subscriptions

Ranking 2023

Analysis

Fixed telephone subscriptions measures the total count of active connections across analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents, and fixed public payphones. Values are reported as absolute subscriber counts, and higher totals indicate greater fixed-line infrastructure. This ranking covers 213 countries using World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code IT.MLT.MAIN), with data drawn from 2023. All 213 countries have data from within the last seven years, and 100 percent of data points are classified as official. The dataset contains 24 extreme outliers as identified by a 3-sigma threshold, reflecting the wide size disparity between large and small economies. The value range runs from 0 to 179,414,000, a spread the viability checks flag at 999 percent.

The top of the ranking is dominated by large, highly populated countries with established telecommunications infrastructure. China (rank 1) leads at 179,414,000 subscriptions, followed by the United States (rank 2, 84,830,000) and Japan (rank 3, 59,326,700). Germany (rank 4, 38,700,000) and France (rank 5, 37,281,000) are the leading European nations. India (rank 6, 30,933,200) and Iran (rank 7, 29,019,900) show substantial fixed-line presence despite also being large mobile markets. Within the top 20, Malaysia (rank 19, 8,401,800) and Colombia (rank 20, 7,276,990) appear alongside major economies, reflecting regional infrastructure investment.

The middle of the ranking includes a range of economies across income levels. Uzbekistan (rank 25, 6,147,120) places ahead of Portugal (rank 26, 5,501,590) and Greece (rank 27, 5,091,490), which is notable given population and income differences. Sweden, typically associated with advanced telecommunications, ranks 71st with only 871,848 subscriptions, lower than Cameroon (rank 69, 896,183) and Ethiopia (rank 72, 862,157). Finland (rank 122, 158,000) and Norway (rank 124, 145,179) rank in the bottom half of the 213-country list. Six countries report exactly zero subscriptions: Chad, Congo Dem. Rep., Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nauru, and South Sudan, all sharing rank 208.

This metric counts active subscriptions rather than unique subscribers or households with access, so countries with many shared or public payphone lines may show inflated totals. VoIP subscriptions are included alongside traditional analogue lines, which means countries with different reporting practices for VoIP may not be directly comparable. Absolute values rather than per-capita rates favor large, populous countries, and a small nation with near-universal fixed-line access will rank far lower than a large country with sparse coverage. Zero-value entries for some countries may reflect genuine absence of infrastructure or incomplete reporting. The viability checks note that only 71.4 percent of countries have data specifically from 2023, meaning some figures are carried from prior years.

Methodology

Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code IT.MLT.MAIN, for the reference year 2023. Fixed telephone subscriptions is defined as the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones. Values are absolute counts of subscriptions, not per-capita figures. The ranking covers all 213 countries for which the World Bank reports data. All 213 countries (100 percent) have data from within the last seven years, and 100 percent of data points carry official status. The dataset includes 24 extreme outliers identified using a 3-sigma threshold, driven by the extreme concentration of subscriptions in a small number of large countries. Values range from 0 to 179,414,000, a spread of 999 percent. Year-over-year volatility averages 9.3 percent across the dataset. Data for 152 of 213 countries (71.4 percent) is confirmed from 2023; the remainder draws on the most recent available prior year.

Sources

• World Bank