placestats

Fixed broadband vs. Mean years of schooling

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 187 countries, Fixed broadband and Mean years of schooling rise and fall together at r = +0.75 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.21, which could easily be chance (q = 0.22, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things.

Comparing countries across the middle half of mean years of schooling, 6.83 to 11.6 years, fixed broadband is better by 17.7 per 100 people at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 5.05 per 100 people.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.747p = 1.4e-34 · 187 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.214p = 0.003 · likely range [+0.07, +0.35]
p, allowing for regions0.029standard error 0.075 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.222across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Fixed broadband · per 100 peoplelink with income +0.88 · proxy
Mean years of schooling · yearslink with income +0.82 · proxy

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Fixed broadband · per 100 people →Mean years of schooling · years →052.41.4114.3Afghanistan: 0.0801 per 100 people, 2.51 yearsAngola: 0.363 per 100 people, 5.96 yearsAlbania: 24.9 per 100 people, 10.2 yearsAndorra: 52.4 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsUnited Arab Emirates: 40.8 per 100 people, 13 yearsArgentina: 26.1 per 100 people, 11.2 yearsArmenia: 20.3 per 100 people, 11.3 yearsAntigua and Barbuda: 10.7 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsAustralia: 36.5 per 100 people, 12.9 yearsAustria: 30.1 per 100 people, 12.4 yearsAzerbaijan: 21.8 per 100 people, 11.1 yearsBurundi: 0.0203 per 100 people, 3.47 yearsBelgium: 44.2 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsBenin: 0.277 per 100 people, 3.19 yearsBurkina Faso: 0.851 per 100 people, 2.27 yearsBangladesh: 8.09 per 100 people, 6.79 yearsBulgaria: 37 per 100 people, 11.5 yearsBahrain: 17 per 100 people, 11.1 yearsBahamas, The: 25.3 per 100 people, 12.8 yearsBosnia and Herzegovina: 29.4 per 100 people, 11 yearsBelarus: 36.3 per 100 people, 12.3 yearsBelize: 9.75 per 100 people, 8.76 yearsBolivia: 12.1 per 100 people, 10 yearsBrazil: 24.1 per 100 people, 8.43 yearsBarbados: 37.5 per 100 people, 9.93 yearsBrunei Darussalam: 21.2 per 100 people, 9.28 yearsBhutan: 2.92 per 100 people, 5.84 yearsBotswana: 7.44 per 100 people, 10.5 yearsCentral African Republic: 0.0161 per 100 people, 3.99 yearsCanada: 42.5 per 100 people, 13.9 yearsSwitzerland: 47 per 100 people, 13.9 yearsChile: 23.7 per 100 people, 11.3 yearsChina: 47.2 per 100 people, 8.04 yearsCote d'Ivoire: 1.6 per 100 people, 4.87 yearsCameroon: 2.13 per 100 people, 6.57 yearsCongo, Dem. Rep.: 0.032 per 100 people, 7.38 yearsCongo, Rep.: 1.27 per 100 people, 8.32 yearsColombia: 17.2 per 100 people, 9.03 yearsComoros: 0.388 per 100 people, 6.01 yearsCabo Verde: 8.31 per 100 people, 6.09 yearsCosta Rica: 23.3 per 100 people, 8.84 yearsCyprus: 37.6 per 100 people, 12.6 yearsCzechia: 38.9 per 100 people, 13 yearsGermany: 45.6 per 100 people, 14.3 yearsDjibouti: 1.47 per 100 people, 3.95 yearsDominica: 20.9 per 100 people, 10.1 yearsDenmark: 43.4 per 100 people, 13 yearsDominican Republic: 11.2 per 100 people, 9.44 yearsAlgeria: 13.3 per 100 people, 7.42 yearsEcuador: 17.2 per 100 people, 8.97 yearsEgypt, Arab Rep.: 11.7 per 100 people, 10.1 yearsSpain: 39.2 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsEstonia: 35.4 per 100 people, 13.6 yearsEthiopia: 0.594 per 100 people, 2.4 yearsFinland: 36.5 per 100 people, 13 yearsFiji: 1.8 per 100 people, 10.4 yearsFrance: 48.9 per 100 people, 11.8 yearsMicronesia, Fed. Sts.: 5.82 per 100 people, 7.33 yearsGabon: 4.69 per 100 people, 9.69 yearsUnited Kingdom: 42.2 per 100 people, 13.5 yearsGeorgia: 30.4 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsGhana: 0.665 per 100 people, 7.11 yearsGuinea: 0.00628 per 100 people, 2.49 yearsGambia, The: 0.519 per 100 people, 4.67 yearsGuinea-Bissau: 0.386 per 100 people, 3.67 yearsEquatorial Guinea: 0.101 per 100 people, 8.28 yearsGreece: 44.7 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsGrenada: 29.8 per 100 people, 9.45 yearsGuatemala: 5.34 per 100 people, 5.85 yearsGuyana: 12.9 per 100 people, 8.7 yearsHong Kong SAR, China: 40.3 per 100 people, 12.3 yearsHonduras: 4.58 per 100 people, 7.51 yearsCroatia: 29.6 per 100 people, 12.1 yearsHaiti: 0.307 per 100 people, 5.38 yearsHungary: 37.5 per 100 people, 12.3 yearsIndonesia: 4.92 per 100 people, 8.7 yearsIndia: 3.15 per 100 people, 6.88 yearsIreland: 32.3 per 100 people, 11.7 yearsIran, Islamic Rep.: 12.1 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsIraq: 17.6 per 100 people, 6.78 yearsIceland: 37.5 per 100 people, 13.9 yearsIsrael: 29.2 per 100 people, 13.5 yearsItaly: 31.8 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsJamaica: 16 per 100 people, 9.96 yearsJordan: 7.02 per 100 people, 10.2 yearsJapan: 38.6 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsKazakhstan: 15.3 per 100 people, 12.5 yearsKenya: 3.04 per 100 people, 8.62 yearsKyrgyz Republic: 7.8 per 100 people, 12.1 yearsCambodia: 4.15 per 100 people, 5.2 yearsKiribati: 0.0349 per 100 people, 9.13 yearsSt. Kitts and Nevis: 46.7 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsKorea, Rep.: 47.8 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsKuwait: 1.01 per 100 people, 7.57 yearsLao PDR: 2.72 per 100 people, 6.06 yearsLebanon: 7.29 per 100 people, 10.4 yearsLiberia: 0.275 per 100 people, 6.17 yearsLibya: 4.52 per 100 people, 7.78 yearsSt. Lucia: 13.6 per 100 people, 8.61 yearsSri Lanka: 8.47 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsLesotho: 0.379 per 100 people, 7.73 yearsLithuania: 27.8 per 100 people, 13.6 yearsLuxembourg: 40.3 per 100 people, 12.6 yearsLatvia: 25.8 per 100 people, 13.4 yearsMorocco: 7.3 per 100 people, 6.2 yearsMoldova: 29.6 per 100 people, 11.8 yearsMadagascar: 0.124 per 100 people, 4.59 yearsMaldives: 19.6 per 100 people, 7.41 yearsMexico: 21.7 per 100 people, 9.35 yearsMarshall Islands: 2.35 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsNorth Macedonia: 29.9 per 100 people, 10.2 yearsMali: 0.774 per 100 people, 1.63 yearsMalta: 44.5 per 100 people, 12.4 yearsMyanmar: 2.87 per 100 people, 6.38 yearsMontenegro: 32.3 per 100 people, 12.8 yearsMongolia: 15.8 per 100 people, 9.42 yearsMozambique: 0.142 per 100 people, 4.59 yearsMauritania: 0.947 per 100 people, 4.85 yearsMauritius: 28 per 100 people, 10.1 yearsMalawi: 0.0864 per 100 people, 5.24 yearsMalaysia: 13.5 per 100 people, 11.1 yearsNamibia: 2.83 per 100 people, 7.27 yearsNiger: 0.111 per 100 people, 1.41 yearsNigeria: 0.0787 per 100 people, 7.59 yearsNicaragua: 5.78 per 100 people, 9.93 yearsNetherlands: 43 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsNorway: 45.2 per 100 people, 13.1 yearsNepal: 10.1 per 100 people, 4.5 yearsNaoero: 9.96 per 100 people, 9.45 yearsNew Zealand: 38 per 100 people, 12.9 yearsOman: 11.1 per 100 people, 11.9 yearsPakistan: 1.47 per 100 people, 4.32 yearsPanama: 18.1 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsPeru: 11.7 per 100 people, 10.2 yearsPhilippines: 7.14 per 100 people, 9.98 yearsPalau: 7.33 per 100 people, 13.3 yearsPapua New Guinea: 0.233 per 100 people, 4.96 yearsPoland: 25.4 per 100 people, 13.2 yearsPortugal: 45.2 per 100 people, 9.7 yearsParaguay: 12.9 per 100 people, 8.93 yearsWest Bank and Gaza: 8.16 per 100 people, 10.1 yearsQatar: 11.8 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsRomania: 35.8 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsRussian Federation: 27.1 per 100 people, 12.4 yearsRwanda: 0.596 per 100 people, 4.88 yearsSaudi Arabia: 44.1 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsSudan: 0.0604 per 100 people, 3.96 yearsSenegal: 4.04 per 100 people, 2.93 yearsSingapore: 27.8 per 100 people, 12 yearsSolomon Islands: 0.107 per 100 people, 5.88 yearsSierra Leone: 0.00227 per 100 people, 3.54 yearsEl Salvador: 12.5 per 100 people, 7.3 yearsSan Marino: 35.8 per 100 people, 11.4 yearsSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 0.723 per 100 people, 1.9 yearsSerbia: 33.4 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsSao Tome and Principe: 2.99 per 100 people, 5.99 yearsSuriname: 18.8 per 100 people, 8.43 yearsSlovak Republic: 33.8 per 100 people, 13.1 yearsSlovenia: 34.2 per 100 people, 13 yearsSweden: 40.6 per 100 people, 12.7 yearsEswatini: 2.51 per 100 people, 8.69 yearsSeychelles: 31.6 per 100 people, 11.2 yearsSyrian Arab Republic: 6.86 per 100 people, 5.94 yearsChad: 0 per 100 people, 2.33 yearsTogo: 1.42 per 100 people, 5.86 yearsThailand: 14.9 per 100 people, 9.04 yearsTajikistan: 0.984 per 100 people, 11.3 yearsTurkmenistan: 5.22 per 100 people, 11.2 yearsTimor-Leste: 0.006 per 100 people, 6.23 yearsTonga: 8.17 per 100 people, 10.9 yearsTrinidad and Tobago: 27 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsTunisia: 15 per 100 people, 7.59 yearsTurkiye: 23.4 per 100 people, 8.99 yearsTuvalu: 4.52 per 100 people, 10.8 yearsTanzania: 0.246 per 100 people, 6.07 yearsUganda: 0.208 per 100 people, 6.32 yearsUkraine: 21.7 per 100 people, 11.1 yearsUruguay: 33 per 100 people, 10.5 yearsUnited States: 38.9 per 100 people, 13.9 yearsUzbekistan: 34.7 per 100 people, 11.9 yearsSt. Vincent and the Grenadines: 29.5 per 100 people, 11.3 yearsViet Nam: 23.7 per 100 people, 8.98 yearsVanuatu: 1.16 per 100 people, 7.18 yearsSamoa: 0.878 per 100 people, 11.3 yearsSouth Africa: 5.35 per 100 people, 11.6 yearsZambia: 0.79 per 100 people, 7.4 yearsZimbabwe: 1.94 per 100 people, 8.93 yearsANDCANCHECHNDEUMHLMLINERPLWPRTSOMWSM

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.7471.4e-34187
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.8006.9e-43187
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.2140.003187
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.2800.000187

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 187 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.533 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.180 (without KWT) to +0.239 (without CHN). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: KWT (-0.034).

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific30-0.01
Europe & Central Asia50+0.03
Latin America & Caribbean31+0.36
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan22+0.38
Sub-Saharan Africa46+0.10

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third63+0.19
Middle third62+0.19
Richest third62+0.46

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians108+0.28
Muslims49+0.27

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France25+0.20
Never a European colony21-0.13
Spain20+0.27
United Kingdom63+0.34

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = +0.214 after dropping 0 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 26years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = -0.024, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose fixed broadband moved did not tend to see their mean years of schooling move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.214for comparison
Within countries+0.635each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.024q = 0.805 · 190 countries
Year-on-year changes+0.025q = 0.638
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.
  • Much of the within-country association disappears once shared global year effects are removed, which points to a common worldwide trend rather than a country-level relationship.

3,888 country-years (one country in one year), 190 countries, 1998–2023, about 21 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 5% for Fixed broadband, 37% for Mean years of schooling. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.30−0.3-100+10years Mean years of schooling trails Fixed broadband →lag -10: r = 0.209 (n = 3,747)lag -9: r = 0.187 (n = 3,799)lag -8: r = 0.161 (n = 3,842)lag -7: r = 0.138 (n = 3,883)lag -6: r = 0.114 (n = 3,914)lag -5: r = 0.086 (n = 3,946)lag -4: r = 0.060 (n = 3,973)lag -3: r = 0.035 (n = 3,995)lag -2: r = 0.011 (n = 4,013)lag -1: r = -0.007 (n = 4,024)lag +0: r = -0.024 (n = 3,888)lag +1: r = -0.046 (n = 3,732)lag +2: r = -0.069 (n = 3,549)lag +3: r = -0.086 (n = 3,364)lag +4: r = -0.099 (n = 3,179)lag +5: r = -0.114 (n = 2,992)lag +6: r = -0.132 (n = 2,819)lag +7: r = -0.150 (n = 2,626)lag +8: r = -0.159 (n = 2,435)lag +9: r = -0.163 (n = 2,252)lag +10: r = -0.165 (n = 2,054)

Same year (lag 0): -0.024. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

This curve peaks at the edge of the window (lag -10), so it is still drifting where the search stops. That pattern usually reflects a slow trend left over in the data, not a link with real timing. The peak value should not be read as the “true” link at the right lag.

The data


per 100 people
years		Years
Andorra AND52.411.62024, 2023
France FRA48.911.82024, 2023
Korea, Rep. KOR47.812.72024, 2023
China CHN47.28.042024, 2023
Switzerland CHE4713.92024, 2023
St. Kitts and Nevis KNA46.710.82022, 2023
Germany DEU45.614.32024, 2023
Portugal PRT45.29.72024, 2023
Norway NOR45.213.12024, 2023
Greece GRC44.711.62024, 2023
Malta MLT44.512.42024, 2023
Belgium BEL44.212.72024, 2023
Saudi Arabia SAU44.111.62024, 2023
Denmark DNK43.4132024, 2023
Netherlands NLD4312.72024, 2023

World Bank, World Development Indicators
United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2025

Sources

Fixed broadband

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)

International Telecommunication Union · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Subscriptions, not people. A household line counts once, however many people use it. A country that went straight to mobile data can be well connected with few of these lines. Internet users, already on the site, is the measure of people.

Mean years of schooling

Mean years of schooling, adults aged 25 and over

United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report Office · via Our World in Data · CC BY 3.0 IGO · updated annual

The schooling adults actually completed, decades ago for most of them. Expected schooling looks ahead at children; this looks back at adults. It is the one to read for the education of the workforce rather than of children.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2021–2024. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Fixed broadband and Mean years of schooling

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Fixed broadband changes Mean years of schooling, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Fixed broadband or Mean years of schooling