Sub-Saharan Africa: Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa's fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) did not change 0 on 2024 (from 0.4 to 0.4).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.02 and a typical year strayed about 0.08 from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.3 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 0.2 in 1975 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.2 in 2018. 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 downward, about 0.08 a year. A straight line explains 94% 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 0.13 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 0.04, against 0.07 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

Fixed telephone subscriptions refers to the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones.

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 weighted average.

All 65 values

Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 0.44 (2023)
• Algeria — 14.81 (2024)
• Bahrain — 15.93 (2024)
• Djibouti — 2.49 (2023)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 11.37 (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 30.83 (2024)
• Iraq — 11.46 (2024)
• Israel — 27.66 (2023)
• Jordan — 4.21 (2024)
• Kuwait — 11.83 (2023)

More infrastructure data for Sub-Saharan Africa

• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 5 million (2025)
• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 717,259 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 4,829 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 56.96 million (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 1.2 billion (2025)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 90.4 (2025)
• Industrial design applications, nonresident, by count — 3,161 (2024)
• Industrial design applications, resident, by count — 2,405 (2024)
• Patent applications, nonresidents

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 Sub-Saharan Africa's fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people)?

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

How has it changed since 1960?

It is down 21.81% from 0.51 in 1960 (0.38% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 1.56 in 2009 and the lowest 0.4 in 2024.

Is the latest change in fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) unusual for Sub-Saharan Africa?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IT.MLT.MAIN.P2, 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.

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