Romania is ranked 34th among 117 countries, or 92% of the global population. Out of the five fundamental digital life pillars, Romania’s worst score is for e-government (58th globally), and the best is for internet quality (13th). Romania’s internet affordability services place 18th, while e-security and e-infrastructure come in 20th and 53rd, respectively. In the face of waging inflation, fixed broadband internet has become less affordable worldwide for the second year in a row, prying the global digital divide even further.
Romania’s internet quality, considering internet speed, stability, and growth, ranks 13th in the world and is 41% better than the global average. Regarding internet speed alone, Romania’s fixed broadband internet ranks higher than mobile in the global ranking, operating at 232.9 Mbps/s (2nd globally). Meanwhile, the mobile internet comes in 39th (63.3 Mbps/s).
Compared to Bulgaria, Romania’s mobile internet is two times slower, while broadband is three times faster. Since last year, mobile internet speed in Romania has improved by 9.4% (5.4 Mbps), and fixed broadband speed has grown by 8.7% (18.5 Mbps). By comparison, Singapore’s residents enjoyed mobile speeds up to 104 Mbps/s and fixed to as much as 261 Mbps/s – that’s the fastest internet in the world this year.
Romania’s internet affordability ranks 18th in the world. Residents can buy 1GB of mobile internet in Romania for as cheap as 59 seconds of work per month, two times less than in Bulgaria. However, compared to Israel, which has the most affordable mobile internet on the planet (5s per 1GB), Romanians work 12 times more. Its affordability improved since the previous year, making people work 38 seconds less to afford the same mobile internet service.
Fixed broadband costs Romanians around 82 minutes of their working time each month. To afford it, Romanians have to work 4 times more than Israeli citizens, for whom the most affordable package costs only 19 min of work monthly. Since last year, broadband internet has become more affordable in Romania, making people work 14 minutes less to afford fixed broadband internet service.
Out of all index pillars, Romania’s weakest spot is e-government, which needs to improve by 50% to match the best-ranking country’s result (U.S.’s).
Globally, broadband is getting less affordable each year. Looking at countries included in last year’s index, people have to work six minutes more to afford broadband internet in 2022. In some countries, such as Ivory Coast and Uganda, people work an average of 2 weeks to earn the cheapest fixed broadband internet package. The same trend was observed last year. With the current inflation, the pressure on low-income households that need the internet has become even heavier. Surfshark’s study also found that countries with the poorest internet connection have to work for it the longest.Overall, seven out of ten highest-scoring countries are in Europe, which has been the case for the past three years. Israel ranks 1st in DQL 2022 pushing Denmark to the second place after its two-year lead. Germany ranks 3rd, and France and Sweden round up the top five of the 117 evaluated nations. Congo DR, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cameroon are the bottom five countries.
Regionally, the US stands out in the Americas as a country with the highest digital quality of life, while Israel takes the leading position in Asia. Among African countries, people in South Africa enjoy the highest digital life quality. In Oceania, New Zealand takes the lead outperforming Australia in various digital areas this year.
The study covers 92% of the global population and indexes 117 countries by looking at five fundamental pillars of digital life – internet affordability and quality, e-infrastructure, e-security, and e-government. The DQL study is conducted by cybersecurity company Surfshark.