Which has higher fixed telephone subscriptions, Israel or Sub-Saharan Africa?

Sub-Saharan Africa, at 5.00 million against 2.56 million in Israel as of 2025.

What is the difference in fixed telephone subscriptions between Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa?

2.44 million, with Sub-Saharan Africa ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa?

63 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2023.

Where does this data come from?

World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), published as Fixed telephone subscriptions. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Israel vs Sub-Saharan Africa: Fixed telephone subscriptions

Israel

2.56 million

in 2023

Sub-Saharan Africa

5.00 million

in 2025

Israel rank

40th

Sub-Saharan Africa rank

38th

Fixed telephone subscriptions over time

Israel
Sub-Saharan Africa

How they compare

Sub-Saharan Africa currently reports 5.00 million against 2.56 million in Israel, a difference of 2.44 million.

That makes Sub-Saharan Africa's figure about 2.0 times Israel's.

Across all 63 years both countries report, Sub-Saharan Africa has been ahead every year.

Israel ranks 40th and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 38th of 212 countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa has averaged higher in every one of the 7 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Israel	Sub-Saharan Africa	Difference	Ahead
1960s	112,451	947,959	835,508	Sub-Saharan Africa
1970s	528,710	1.66 million	1.13 million	Sub-Saharan Africa
1980s	1.17 million	3.53 million	2.35 million	Sub-Saharan Africa
1990s	2.25 million	6.60 million	4.35 million	Sub-Saharan Africa
2000s	3.04 million	11.15 million	8.11 million	Sub-Saharan Africa
2010s	3.37 million	10.81 million	7.44 million	Sub-Saharan Africa
2020s	3.25 million	7.00 million	3.75 million	Sub-Saharan Africa

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher fixed telephone subscriptions, Israel or Sub-Saharan Africa?: Sub-Saharan Africa, at 5.00 million against 2.56 million in Israel as of 2025.
What is the difference in fixed telephone subscriptions between Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa?: 2.44 million, with Sub-Saharan Africa ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa?: 63 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2023.
How do Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa rank globally for fixed telephone subscriptions?: Israel ranks 40th and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 38th of 212 countries.
Where does this data come from?: World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), published as Fixed telephone subscriptions. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator: Fixed telephone subscriptions
Source: World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 260 places, 14,482 data points, 1960–2025
Last refreshed: 06 August 2026

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.