Germany vs South Africa: Mobile phone subscriptions

Germany
109.20 million
in 2024
South Africa
114.79 million
in 2024
Germany rank
18th
South Africa rank
16th

Mobile phone subscriptions over time

  • Germany
  • South Africa
025.0M50.0M75.0M100.0M125.0M198020022024

How they compare

South Africa currently reports 114.79 million against 109.20 million in Germany, a difference of 5.59 million.

That makes South Africa's figure about 1.1 times Germany's.

The two have swapped places 2 times across 45 shared years of data; in 1980 it was South Africa ahead.

Globally, Germany ranks 18th and South Africa ranks 16th of 212 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Mobile phone subscriptions
Source
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), via World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
212 places, 9,009 data points, 1980–2024
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