UK Broadband Usage Statistics 2022

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A recent study by BroadbandUK has revealed that homes in Southall, West London have the highest broadband usage per household*: 589 gigabytes per month on average. With an estimated 63 million internet users in the UK, BroadbandUK dug into the data to gain a greater understanding of internet usage in homes across the nation.

According to Ofcom data, average broadband usage per UK household was 456 GB/month in May 2022. That's the equivalent of 65 hours of UltraHD streaming on Netflix, or streaming more than 63 thousand 3 minute songs on Spotify.

The region with the highest average consumption is Greater London, with 506 GB/month; 11% above the national average. In second place, households in the North West use on average 478 GB/month. With 3.18 million connections in the region, total annual usage comes to a staggering 18.6 billion gigabytes.

Region	Avg. monthly usage per household (GB)	+/- Diff. UK Avg.
Greater London	506	11.10%
North West	478	4.80%
West Midlands	463	1.50%
South East	456	-0.10%
East Midlands	454	-0.50%
East of England	447	-2.00%
North East	443	-2.80%
Northern Ireland	441	-3.30%
Scotland	441	-3.30%
Wales	439	-3.60%
South West	400	-12.40%

Table: Average broadband usage per connection +/- % against UK average at regional level

Which UK towns and cities are the biggest gigabyte guzzlers?

Southall in West London comes top of the table with an average of 589 GB/month per connection. That's 29% above the national average.

Southall - 589 GB/month
Romford - 560 GB/month
Ilford - 559 GB/month
Manchester - 533 GB/month
Oldham - 531 GB/month
Dartford - 529 GB/month

Drilling down to street level, White Hart Lane in Haddenham near Aylesbury has the highest average usage per connection, with 29,203 GB/month. The research looked at predominantly residential streets across the UK.

White Hart Lane in Haddenham - 29,203 GB/month
Wilkie Court, Woburn Sands, Milton Keynes - 14,910 GB/month
Cheapside Road, Ascot - 14,823 GB/month
Chambers Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea - 7,509 GB/month
Moss Carr Grove, Keighley - 5,623 GB/month

UK towns and cities with the least monthly broadband usage

Llandrindod in Wales has the lowest usage per connection with 308 GB/month, which is 32.5% below the national average.

Torquay - 328 GB/month (45% connections <30mbps)
Exeter - 363 GB/month (36% connections <30mbps)
Shrewsbury - 367 GB/month (36% connections <30mbps)
Harrogate - 372 GB/month (31% connections <30mbps)
Truro - 373 GB/month (43% connections <30mbps)

Factors contributing to disparity in broadband usage across the UK

It comes as no surprise that BroadbandUK identified a positive correlation between connection speeds and usage. 70% of connections in Greater London are Superfast (30Mbit/s or more) and 5% Ultrafast (300Mbit/s or more) with only 25% Standard connection (under 30Mbit/s).

33 of the 114 locations analysed have 5% or more Ultrafast connections and the average usage is 480 GB/month; 5% above the UK average. Typically, where faster broadband is available, usage increases.

Contrastingly, the South West has the lowest data usage per connection, but also the highest proportion of Standard connections, with 32%. Bucking the trend entirely, Hull had the highest proportion of Ultrafast connections at 13.5%, but the average household usage was 11% below the national average; just 407 GB/month. In fact, Hull is one of the fastest broadband regions in the world, due to KCOM's rollout of its £85m full fibre network in 2019, but this hasn't resulted in greater data usage.

Region	Avg. Usage per Connection, Monthly (GB)	Standard Connections %	Superfast Connections %	Ultrafast Connections %
Greater London	506	24.7%	69.8%	5.4%
North West	478	26.6%	69.4%	4.1%
West Midlands	463	26.3%	69.0%	4.6%
South East	456	26.3%	69.5%	4.2%
East Midlands	454	25.9%	70.1%	3.9%
East of England	447	27.2%	69.0%	3.8%
North East	443	28.0%	67.4%	4.6%
Northern Ireland	441	31.0%	65.6%	3.4%
Scotland	441	29.5%	66.4%	4.1%
Wales	439	29.2%	68.6%	2.2%
South West	400	32.4%	63.9%	3.6%

Table: Average broadband usage per connection and % of Ultrafast, Superfast and Standard connections at regional level

Other locations with more Standard connections than the average UK town or city (the average across all locations analysed was 28%) and below average monthly household usage include Llandrindod, Kirkwall, Exeter and Hereford.

Town/City	Avg. Usage per Connection, Monthly (GB)	Standard Connections %	Superfast Connections %	Ultrafast Connections %
Llandrindod	308	45.1%	53.9%	0.9%
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	315	33.7%	66.2%	0.1%
Shetland	323	38.1%	61.8%	0.1%
Kirkwall	324	45.4%	54.5%	0.1%
Torquay	328	38.1%	59.2%	2.7%
Galashiels	350	34.5%	64.9%	0.5%
Exeter	363	36.3%	61.6%	2.1%
Inverness	365	39.1%	60.3%	0.6%
Hereford	365	34.1%	64.0%	1.9%
Perth	366	35.1%	63.0%	1.9%
Shrewsbury	367	35.8%	63.3%	0.9%
Dorchester	368	32.1%	67.6%	0.4%
Harrogate	372	30.6%	65.4%	4.0%
Truro	373	43.0%	55.0%	2.0%

Table: Broadband usage for locations with more than 28% (UK avg.) Standard connections

Project Gigabit, a Government initiative to deliver fast, reliable broadband to homes and businesses across the UK, was announced in 2021 with investment to the tune of £5bn. The Government boasts that 'Gigabit-capable broadband is now available to over 70% of the UK', but BroadbandUK's analysis showed that despite these claims, uptake of Ultrafast broadband is significantly lower.

Saveen Rajan, CEO of BroadbandUK, comments:

"The Government's levelling up agenda has included a major push to deliver full fibre broadband across the UK. However, while the pace of this rollout has been rapid, our research shows that take-up has so far lagged behind due to lack of awareness and high pricing."

WFH and broadband usage

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ONS data identified Greater London and the North West as the regions with the highest proportion of employees working from home. In February 2022, 84% of people working from home due to the pandemic said they planned to mix working at home and in the office in future. This is likely a contributing factor to regional variations in usage.

The environmental impact of data transfers

Home broadband connections are becoming increasingly fast and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are investing heavily in reducing the carbon footprint of data transfer. But despite drastically reducing carbon emissions in recent years, there's still a very real environmental impact associated with broadband usage.

It's estimated that every GB of data transferred produces 13.8 grams of carbon. With this in mind, the UK produces 158,000 tonnes of carbon every month through broadband usage alone. To put that into perspective, it would take 90 million trees to offset the UK's annual carbon emissions from broadband usage.

Region	Avg. kg of CO2 emissions per household/annually	Tonnes of CO2 emissions per region/annually	Trees to offset regional annual emissions
Greater London	84	24,873	14.2
North West	79	21,415	12.2
West Midlands	77	14,981	8.6
South East	75	19,355	11.1
East Midlands	75	13,140	7.5
East of England	74	14,510	8.3
North East	73	12,380	7.1
Northern Ireland	73	4,130	2.4
Scotland	73	13,358	7.6
Wales	73	7,365	4.2
South West	66	12,501	7.1

Table: Average annual CO2 emissions per household/region and number of trees to offset regional emissions

Broadband is perhaps one utility that consumers don't immediately associate with the environment, but the data above shows that the issue is very real.

On the environmental impact of broadband usage, Dan Sherrard-Smith, CEO & Founder of MyMotherTree.com noted:

"Great broadband doesn't have to come at the expense of the environment. There are providers out there who offer Ultrafast connectivity while making sure their carbon footprint is as low as possible. It's worth doing a bit of research to make sure the provider you pick is playing its role in serving you as well as the planet."

BroadbandUK's Saveen Rajan added:

"The carbon footprint of our gadgets, the internet and systems supporting them is a real and growing concern - estimated to be similar to global emissions from the aviation industry.

"We hope that ISPs will be encouraged to reduce and offset their carbon footprint - for example, by using renewable energy, recycling equipment and avoiding single use plastics - and, in turn, consumers will choose greener providers so that together we can help mitigate climate change and promote a sustainable future."

In Summary

Greater London is the region where households use the most data on average. This is partly driven by faster connection speeds and partly by the greater proportion of people working from home.
Southall is the town with the highest average household usage per month. Homes use 29% more data than the UK average, 589 GB/month.
Even though Hull has the largest proportion of Ultrafast connections, households average 407 GB/month, 11% below the national average.
The UK Government claims there is 70% coverage of Gigabit-ready broadband, but the data shows that on average just 4% of households have Ultrafast connections in regions across the UK.
The environmental impact of broadband usage is hugely significant. The average household in Greater London produces 84 kg of carbon per year and the whole of the UK produces in the region of 1.9m per year. Broadband providers must continue to make data transfer more efficient and reduce the carbon footprint of broadband usage.

Methodology

We took Ofcom's Connected Nations data, which has connectivity and usage stats at postcode level.
We assigned postcodes to streets, towns, cities and regions, to give us totals and averages by location.
Hours of UltraHD Netflix streaming were calculated assuming that 1GB equates to one hour of streaming (on desktop).
Spotify streaming was calculated using the assumption that one minute of very high quality streaming (320KBPS) equates to 2.4MB.
We estimated carbon emissions assuming that 1GB of data transfer equates to 0.0138 kg of CO2 emissions.
We estimated the number of trees required to offset CO2 emissions, assuming that the annual offsetting rate is 21 kg CO2/tree.

Notes

*A limitation of the data set used is that there isn't a count of individual properties, therefore it was assumed one connection equals one household. There will be instances where properties have more than one connection.
Sources

UK Broadband Usage Statistics 2022

Revealed: The UK's Most Online-Obsessed Areas

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