The top 10 countries with the fastest internet

The internet in the Czech Republic loads 17.8 mbps on average, a 31% boost from last year. This speed is slightly above what most people in the U.S. would consider average, letting you watch HD videos and surf the web without any kind of delay.

The Netherlands' average internet speed is 17.9 mbps.

The country also boasts the highest percentage of households using the internet in the EU, according to a 2014 report.

High-speed fiber optics (cables that enable faster internet) run throughout Japan, giving users an average internet speed of 18.2 mbps. In other words, multiple people in a household can be on Netflix, playing video games, and browsing the web on different devices at the same time without any slow-downs.

Japan is one of several countries working on super-fast 100 gbps internet.

In the meantime, the Japanese provider So-net offers 2 gbps internet — twice as fast as Google Fiber — making it the world's fastest commercially available internet service.

Latvia's average internet speed is 18.3, which is nearly three times faster than the global average.

The internet in Switzerland zooms at an average 18.7 mbps, a 25% increase from last year.

Hong Kong was the first country in the world to reach 60 mbps in 2013. Today, its residents enjoy an average internet speed of 19.9 mbps.

Sweden's internet races at an average of 20.6 mbps, meaning most people rarely experience delays even if they have multiple applications running that take up a lot of bandwidth.

The country saw a 32% increase in speed since last year.

At 21.3 mbps, Norway saw the largest growth (68%) in internet speed since last year compared to any other country in the top 10. At this speed, a computer could upload or download about five high-quality photos per second.

People in South Korea enjoy the fastest internet in the world, according to the Akami report. The country's average internet speed measures 29 mbps, which is 4.6 times as fast as the global average.

To put things in perspective, the average HD film is about 5,000 mb. At 29 mbps speed, a computer could download that in a little over two and a half minutes.

Although more than 80% of South Korean households have access to some of the world's fastest internet connections, they face usage restrictions. According to a 2015 report by the nonprofit Freedom House, many internet users deal with intense internet censorship in South Korea.