A study by BusinessComparison has revealed which countries around Europe will experience the fastest and slowest web page loading, on both desktop and mobile devices.

Increasing numbers of UK workers, or ‘digital nomads’, work remotely from other countries around the world. Whether they have settled in one country, or stay for a few months at a time in different locations, one factor that can have a significant impact on their work is the internet speed.

BusinessComparison ranked every country in Europe by creating two ranked lists: fastest to load a web page on a desktop device, and fastest to load a web page on a mobile device.

The top 5 fastest to load on a desktop device were: Sweden (3.74 seconds), Finland (3.84), Denmark and Latvia (4), Lithuania (4.14), Switzerland (4.23).

The top 5 fastest to load on a mobile device were: Sweden (7.48), Denmark (7.65), Finland (7.8), Latvia (7.93), and jointly, the Netherlands and Switzerland (7.99).

The 5 slowest countries to load a web page on a desktop device were: Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, and Poland – these were also the countries experiencing the slowest mobile device loading times.

The speed it takes a website to load can have a large impact on the user’s experience, with studies showing a direct correlation between loading speed and bounce rate – the percentage of site visitors who leave after only viewing one page.

BusinessComparison discussed the pattern throughout the findings that mobile devices are slower to load, identifying that it could be caused by the phone struggling with large image files, poor connection in the area, or the number of apps the user has open.