5G Statistics 2026: Subscriptions, Coverage and Speed

5G subscriptions reached close to 3.3 billion globally in the second quarter of 2026, with 155 million net additions in that single quarter alone, according to Ericsson’s June 2026 Mobility Report. During 2025, about 660 million new 5G subscriptions were added, and the technology now accounts for one-third of all mobile subscriptions worldwide.

On the coverage side, 5G population coverage reached 60% at the end of 2025 after extending to an additional 400 million people during the year, though only around 35% of sites outside mainland China have been upgraded to 5G mid-band. The gap between headline coverage and site-level upgrades is the real capex story of 2026: operators are catching up on mid-band, not on macro rollout.

Key Takeaways

• Global 5G subscriptions are forecast to reach 6.4 billion by 2031, when they will comprise two-thirds of all mobile subscriptions.
• Around 390 service providers have launched commercial 5G, and more than 90 have launched 5G Standalone (SA).
• Mobile technologies contributed $7.6 trillion to the global economy in 2025, equivalent to 6.4% of GDP, per GSMA.
• 5G carried 48% of global mobile data traffic at the end of 2025, up from 34% a year earlier.
• FWA connections stood at 185 million at the end of 2025 and are forecast to reach 350 million by 2031, with 71% of FWA service providers now offering the service over 5G.
• The global median mobile download speed reached 200.12 Mbps in Ookla’s July 2026 Speedtest Global Index, with latency at 29 ms.
• Total cellular IoT connections reached approximately 4.5 billion at the end of 2025, with Broadband and Critical IoT (4G/5G) accounting for 2.6 billion.

Editor’s Choice

• Global 5G subscriptions are close to 3.3 billion as of Q2 2026.
• Around 390 5G networks have been launched worldwide.
• North America leads with 79% 5G penetration, followed by Northeast Asia at 60%.
• The global mobile-technology economy is projected to reach $11.3 trillion by 2030.
• United Arab Emirates tops the mobile speed table at 752.25 Mbps median download.
• Total mobile data traffic ended 2025 at 146 EB per month and is forecast to reach 328 EB per month by 2031.
• 4G subscriptions declined by 62 million in Q2 2026 to around 4.5 billion as migration to 5G continues.

Global 5G Subscriptions and Growth

About This Data: The subscription, coverage, traffic, IoT, and FWA figures below are compiled from seven primary sources: five sections of Ericsson’s Mobility Report June 2026 edition, the GSMA Mobile Economy 2026, and Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index (July 2026). Publication window spans March-August 2026. Selection restricted to official primary datasets; secondary aggregators excluded. Numbers will be refreshed when Ericsson publishes its next semi-annual update in November 2026.

• Global 5G subscriptions reached close to 3.3 billion at the end of Q2 2026 after 155 million net additions in that quarter.
• About 660 million 5G subscriptions were added globally during 2025.
• At the end of 2025, 5G accounted for approximately one-third of all mobile subscriptions worldwide.
• By the end of 2027, the number of 5G subscriptions is expected to increase by 1.2 billion compared with the end of 2025.
• 5G will overtake 4G as the dominant mobile access technology by subscription nine years after launch.
• Global 5G subscriptions are forecast to reach 6.4 billion in 2031, or roughly two-thirds of all mobile subscriptions.
• Around 390 service providers have launched commercial 5G services, of which more than 90 have launched 5G Standalone (SA).
• GSMA estimates that 80% of global mobile connections will be 5G by 2030.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026

Regional 5G Penetration

• North America leads global 5G penetration at 79% of mobile subscriptions at the end of 2025.
• Northeast Asia sits second at 60% 5G penetration.
• Western Europe reached 54% 5G penetration at the end of 2025.
• The Gulf Cooperation Council countries recorded 53% 5G penetration.
• By 2031, Western Europe is projected to reach roughly 95 and North America 92% 5G subscription penetration, respectively.
• GCC countries and Northeast Asia are projected to reach just below 90% 5G penetration by 2031.
• On the coverage side, 5G population coverage reached 60% globally at the end of 2025, while extending to an additional 400 million people during that year.

Those same four regions are projected to converge into a much tighter band by 2031, as the table below shows alongside each region’s current share.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026

By the numbers: North America’s 79% 5G penetration sits well ahead of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries at 53%, even though the GCC leads on measured speed in Ookla’s July 2026 index. Ericsson expects the ranking to compress by 2031, with the four leading regions projected in a tight band, from just below 90% up to the mid-90s.

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Recent Developments

• Ericsson’s June 2026 update projects 5G Standalone subscriptions to reach around 3.9 billion by 2031.
• The share of FWA service providers offering the service over 5G has reached 71%, a 14pp year-on-year jump that Ericsson calls the highest annual increase in four years.
• 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) has been commercially launched by 14 service providers, with 42 more in 27 countries investing in the technology.
• By the end of 2025, 80 service providers had completely finished shutting down their 3G networks.
• Ookla’s July 2026 Speedtest Global Index recorded a global median mobile download of 200.12 Mbps, upload of 23.67 Mbps, and latency of 29 ms.
• First commercial launches of 6G are expected around 2030, with variations between regions and countries.

5G Population Coverage

• Global 5G population coverage reached 60% at the end of 2025, extending to an additional 400 million people during the year.
• Outside mainland China, 5G population coverage is projected to increase from 50% in 2025 to about 85% in 2031.
• North America, mainland China, and India now cover 90-95% of the population with both total 5G and 5G mid-band.
• Latin America stands at 30% total 5G coverage and 25% mid-band coverage at the end of 2025.
• Asia-Pacific outside India and mainland China sits at about 35% total 5G coverage and 35% mid-band coverage.
• The Middle East recorded roughly 20% total 5G coverage and 20% mid-band at the end of 2025.
• Africa has the lowest total and mid-band 5G coverage, both around 10% at the end of 2025.
• 4G population coverage outside mainland China had reached 90% by the end of 2025 and is projected to exceed 95% in 2031.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026. Both figures are 5G population coverage outside mainland China; these are the only two years Ericsson reports on this basis, and no intermediate values are interpolated.

5G Speeds by Country

• United Arab Emirates leads the global mobile speed table with a median download of 752.25 Mbps in Ookla’s July 2026 Speedtest Global Index.
• Qatar sits second at 615.64 Mbps and Kuwait third at 441.50 Mbps median mobile download.
• South Korea holds fourth position at 376.63 Mbps.
• United States ranks 11th globally at 285.34 Mbps median mobile download.
• Germany, at 293.26 Mbps, ranks tenth globally, the highest-placed European market.
• Vietnam ranks sixth at 326.68 Mbps median mobile download.
• China sits at 22nd with a median mobile download of 224.64 Mbps.
• The global median mobile download speed stands at 200.12 Mbps with 29 ms latency.
• The UAE’s median download speed is about 2.6 times the United States figure.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index, July 2026

Mobile Data Traffic Growth

• Global mobile data traffic ended 2025 at 146 EB per month and is forecast to reach 328 EB per month by 2031, a growth factor of about 2.2.
• Adding FWA to the mix, total mobile network data traffic ended 2025 at 203 EB per month and is forecast to reach 515 EB per month in 2031.
• 5G’s share of mobile data traffic reached 48% globally at the end of 2025, up from 34% a year earlier.
• 5G’s share of mobile data traffic is projected to reach 85% in 2031.
• Total mobile network data traffic is expected to grow at 14% year-on-year in 2031, with a 17% CAGR over the full forecast period.
• Ericsson notes that mobile network data traffic grew slightly above expectations during 2025.
• For operators, the point is not simply that 5G carries more bits but that it now carries the majority of net-new bits, which shifts capex prioritisation onto sites that can actually handle mid-band throughput.

5G Standalone (SA) Deployment

• More than 90 service providers worldwide have launched 5G Standalone (SA) services out of the 390 that have launched commercial 5G.
• Leading service providers are expected to continue deploying 5G SA globally, with subscriptions projected to reach around 3.9 billion in 2031.
• 5G SA is projected to represent approximately 60% of all 5G subscriptions by 2031.
• About one-in-four service providers with commercial 5G have launched SA.
• The SA-versus-non-standalone split matters because features like network slicing, ultra-low latency, and enterprise 5G LAN require a full SA core; the 3.9 billion figure is effectively the ceiling for enterprise-grade 5G by 2031.

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) on 5G

• There are 175 service providers offering FWA services over 5G, representing 71% of all FWA service providers.
• The share of FWA service providers offering the service over 5G grew by 14pp in the past year, the highest annual increase in four years.
• An updated study found that 83% of surveyed service providers have an FWA offering of some kind.
• Speed-based tariff plans are now offered by 57% of FWA service providers, up from 51% a year ago.
• Global FWA connections are forecast to grow from 185 million at the end of 2025 to 350 million by the end of 2031.
• New 5G FWA launches during the past year include Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Morocco, Taiwan, Türkiye, and Vietnam.
• For the wider media & entertainment sector, FWA is quietly becoming the streaming pipe in markets that never built out fibre; the shift to speed-based tariffs also brings billing symmetry with cable.

The table below breaks that same growth out year by year, alongside overall FWA adoption and the shift toward speed-based tariff plans.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026

Key finding: Ericsson’s latest study shows the 5G share of FWA jumped 14pp year over year, the biggest single-year increase in four years. That trajectory means 5G FWA is on track to become the default fixed-line alternative wherever fibre never landed.

5G RedCap and Cellular IoT

• Total cellular IoT connections reached around 4.5 billion at the end of 2025.
• Broadband and Critical IoT (4G/5G) connections stood at around 2.6 billion by the end of 2025 and are expected to remain the largest cellular IoT segment through 2031.
• 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) has been commercially launched by 14 service providers across multiple global markets.
• Another 42 service providers in 27 countries are currently investing in 5G RedCap technology.
• Enhanced RedCap (eRedCap) is designed with a lower peak data rate of 10 Mbps compared with RedCap.
• By the end of 2025, 80 service providers had completely finished shutting down their 3G networks, while 46 service providers had fully turned off all 2G services.
• RedCap is the piece of the standard that finally makes 5G economical for use cases that only need modest bandwidth: wearables, video surveillance, and industrial telemetry.

The Mid-Band Site-Upgrade Backlog

• 5G mid-band population coverage reached 45% outside mainland China during 2025.
• Only around 35% of sites globally, outside mainland China, have been upgraded to 5G mid-band as of the end of 2025.
• There are currently 838 4G networks deployed worldwide, with 359 upgraded to LTE-Advanced.
• Africa’s mid-band 5G coverage sits at about 10%, the lowest of any tracked region.
• The Middle East mid-band 5G coverage reached about 20% at the end of 2025.
• Latin America mid-band 5G coverage stands at 25%, below the region’s 30% total 5G coverage.
• This is the industry’s quietest but most consequential number: coverage is claimed on a population basis, but the mid-band upgrade lag means the actual capacity that lets 5G outperform 4G is behind schedule outside the top three markets.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026

5G and the Wider Mobile Economy

• In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $7.6 trillion for the global economy, equivalent to 6.4% of GDP, according to GSMA.
• The industry’s economic impact is expected to grow to $11.3 trillion by 2030 as 5G, AI and other digital technologies gather pace.
• GSMA counts approximately 8 billion unique mobile subscribers, around 70% of the world population.
• 80% of global mobile connections will be 5G by 2030, according to GSMA.
• 45% of operators identify AI monetisation as a strategic priority in GSMA’s 2026 survey.
• The projected 2025-to-2030 uplift represents roughly a 49% increase in mobile-related economic contribution.
• The Samsung and smartphones hardware categories sit downstream of the same 5G build-out.

So does the Smart home ecosystem: GSMA’s $11.3 trillion figure captures the wider stack, not just cellular access revenue.

Which country is leading in 5G technology?

On subscription penetration, North America is leading at 79% of mobile subscriptions running on 5G at the end of 2025, followed by Northeast Asia at 60%, Western Europe at 54%, and the Gulf Cooperation Council at 53%.

On measured speed, however, the leadership sits in the Gulf. United Arab Emirates posts a median mobile download of 752.25 Mbps, Qatar 615.64 Mbps, and Kuwait 441.50 Mbps in Ookla’s July 2026 index.

On coverage build-out, mainland China, India, and North America cover 90-95% of the population with 5G, both total and mid-band, per Ericsson.

There is no single “5G leader”: North America leads on subscription penetration, mainland China on absolute base-station count, and the Gulf on end-user speed, all measured in the same year.

How many 5G towers are in the US?

Ericsson does not publish a tower count for individual countries, but the report places North America at 79% 5G subscription penetration at the end of 2025, the highest of any region.

On coverage, North America is one of three regions covering 90-95% of the population with both total 5G and 5G mid-band, alongside mainland China and India.

Real-world capacity remains uneven. United States traffic sits 11th globally at 285.34 Mbps median mobile download in Ookla’s July 2026 index, well behind the Gulf leaders.

The FCC and CTIA publish annual site totals, but the more meaningful comparison is 5G population coverage plus measured median throughput.

Is there anything beyond 5G?

The first commercial launches of 6G are expected around 2030, with variations between regions and countries, according to Ericsson’s June 2026 outlook.

Ericsson describes 6G as “AI-native” and expects it to bring capabilities including integrated sensing and communication, seamless integration between terrestrial and satellite networks, and a strong focus on energy efficiency.

6G is anticipated to have a core network built on the architectural principles of 5G Standalone and a new Radio Access Network architecture with a new radio interface. Because commercial 6G is not expected until around 2030, its traffic should remain a small share of the total through 2031.

In practical terms, 6G in 2030 will look less like a replacement and more like a differentiated top layer on the 5G SA core, aimed at use cases such as massive digital twinning, autonomous mobility and wide-area mixed reality.

Conclusion

Ericsson’s June 2026 numbers place fifth-generation cellular past the point of contest atop the network stack: close to 3.3 billion subscriptions, roughly one-third of every mobile line at end-2025, with a runway to 6.4 billion by 2031. Coverage narrates the same headline story at 60% of the planet’s population, yet the underlying buildout stays uneven, with only about 35% of radio sites outside mainland China lifted to 5G mid-band. For operators, GSMA’s $11.3 trillion 2030 projection signals that the revenue puzzle now shifts from migrating users to fifth-gen, toward monetising it via AI partnerships.

Where the next 24 months matter most is the 5G Standalone build-out: the roughly 3.9 billion SA subscription target by 2031. Adjacent to that, 5G RedCap and its enhanced variant will decide how much of the approximately 4.5 billion cellular IoT base migrates to a native 5G IoT stack over the same window. The headline figure of close to 3.3 billion marks the start of that phase, not the finish.