States such as Vermont, Delaware and New Hampshire don’t exactly bring to mind images of adrenaline-pumping lifestyles. But while these states may not have the bright lights of Las Vegas, the star-studded clubs of Los Angeles or the cool jazz of New Orleans, they do outshine in one area: internet connection.

These three states, according to NPR, top all other states in the fastest average Internet connection speeds. The small size of their populations works to their advantage in leading all other states in fastest Internet connection and fastest peak connection speed, with the measure being less land mass and population, the quicker the connection (given the fact you’re not a third world country).

But the U.S. isn’t a global leader in this department. In fact, it doesn’t even make the top 10.

Where in the World Is the Fastest Connection?

You’ll have to pack your bags and dust off your passport if you are wanting the fastest Internet speeds in the world, because they belong to South Korea and Japan.

An Akamai State of the Internet Report provides an informative map of the world, showing global regions and their average connection speed per kbps (kilobits per second). Scrolling over Japan, one can see the country’s average connection speed of 11,582 kbps. South Korea tops all other regions with 14,182.

In January 2013, Bloomberg reported Hong Kong and Teagu (South Korea) were tops as far as cities with the fastest Internet connections. The top 10 locations include:

1) Hong Kong, 54.1 mps

2) South Korea, 48.8 mps

3) Japan, 42.2 mps

4) Latvia, 37.5 mps

5) Romania, 37.4 mps

6) Belgium, 32.7 mps

7) Switzerland 32.4 mps

8) Bulgaria 32.1 mps

9) Israel 30.9 mps

10) Singapore 30.7 mps

Where does the U.S. fall on this list? No. 14. The U.S. has a disadvantage in this competition because of the difficulty of high-speed fiber reaching across America’s expansive landmass, Bloomberg reported.

The West Isn’t so Quick on the Draw

So how do the likes of South Korea and Japan separate themselves from the rest of the high-speed world? More specifically, how does Japan have the capabilities of providing Internet connection 30 times faster than the U.S.?

It could be our Eastern competitors put more of its financial and research support into technology, but if we are pointing fingers, the first target here in the homeland could very well be with how Internet service providers are monitored by the Federal Trade Commission (FCC).

With more and more American citizens, including both ends of the age spectrum expanding as far as who uses mobile devices and Internet, the U.S. has got to start lessening the gap between IT and the rest of the world.

Another struggle for the U.S. as far as broadband advancement goes is the country’s whiff after whiff of what the Wall Street Journal calls “game-changing transformations” in the computer industry. America needs restore its “can-do” attitude and push through to new horizons in exploration, experiment and discovery.

About the Author:

Jay Carpenter

Jay is the webmaster for a number of blogs and online journals. When he is not busy moderating forums and updating code, he writes about CIS trends and digital hacks.