Africa Eastern and Southern: Mobile cellular subscriptions

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Africa Eastern and Southern's mobile cellular subscriptions rose 62 million on 2024 (from 672 million to 734 million).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +22.39 million and a typical year strayed about 18.33 million from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 2.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 62 million in 2025 and the biggest yearly fall was 7.5 million in 2016. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about 37.66 million a year. A straight line explains 97% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 779 million for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 77.49 million, against 106.33 million for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Mobile cellular telephone subscriptions are subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service that provide access to the PSTN using cellular technology. The indicator includes (and is split into) the number of postpaid subscriptions, and the number of active prepaid accounts (i.e. that have been used during the last three months). The indicator applies to all mobile cellular subscriptions that offer voice communications. It excludes subscriptions via data cards or USB modems, subscriptions to public mobile data services, private trunked mobile radio, telepoint, radio paging and telemetry services.

Limitations: Operators have traditionally been the main source of telecommunications data, so information on subscriptions has been widely available for most countries. This gives a general idea of access, but a more precise measure is the penetration rate - the share of households with access to telecommunications. During the past few years more information on information and communication technology use has become available from household and business surveys. Also important are data on actual use of telecommunications services. Ideally, statistics on telecommunications (and other information and communications technologies) should be compiled for all three measures: subscriptions, access, and use.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a sum.

All 54 values

Mobile cellular subscriptions in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 25.63 million (2024)
• Algeria — 54.05 million (2024)
• Bahrain — 2.56 million (2024)
• Djibouti — 558,607 (2023)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 113.19 million (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 159.39 million (2024)
• Iraq — 46.08 million (2024)
• Israel — 16.65 million (2024)
• Jordan — 8.05 million (2024)
• Kuwait — 8.11 million (2023)
• Lebanon — 4.25 million (2022)

More infrastructure data for Africa Eastern and Southern

• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 3 million (2025)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 0.4 (2025)
• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 586,002 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 4,761 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 46.18 million (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 93.1 (2025)
• ICT service exports (% of service exports, BoP) — 8.66% (2025)
• Scientific and technical journal articles — 30,626 (2023)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Africa Eastern and Southern's mobile cellular subscriptions?

734 million in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

Is the latest change in mobile cellular subscriptions unusual for Africa Eastern and Southern?

In 2025, Africa Eastern and Southern's mobile cellular subscriptions rose 62 million on 2024 (from 672 million to 734 million). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +22.39 million and a typical year strayed about 18.33 million from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 2.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IT.CEL.SETS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.