Ethiopia vs Sub-Saharan Africa: Mobile cellular subscriptions
Mobile cellular subscriptions over time
- Ethiopia
- Sub-Saharan Africa
How they compare
Sub-Saharan Africa currently reports 1.20 billion against 85.95 million in Ethiopia, a difference of 1.11 billion.
That makes Sub-Saharan Africa's figure about 13.9 times Ethiopia's.
Across all 52 years both countries report, Sub-Saharan Africa has been ahead every year.
Ethiopia ranks 23rd and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 20th of 214 countries.
Sub-Saharan Africa has averaged higher in every one of the 7 decades both report.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Ethiopia | Sub-Saharan Africa | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1970s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1980s | 0 | 398 | 398 | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| 1990s | 674 | 1.46 million | 1.46 million | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| 2000s | 879,454 | 113.18 million | 112.30 million | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| 2010s | 30.30 million | 650.51 million | 620.21 million | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| 2020s | 68.69 million | 1.06 billion | 991.31 million | Sub-Saharan Africa |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher mobile cellular subscriptions, Ethiopia or Sub-Saharan Africa?
- Sub-Saharan Africa, at 1.20 billion against 85.95 million in Ethiopia as of 2025.
- What is the difference in mobile cellular subscriptions between Ethiopia and Sub-Saharan Africa?
- 1.11 billion, with Sub-Saharan Africa ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Ethiopia and Sub-Saharan Africa?
- 52 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2024.
- How do Ethiopia and Sub-Saharan Africa rank globally for mobile cellular subscriptions?
- Ethiopia ranks 23rd and Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 20th of 214 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), published as Mobile cellular subscriptions. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
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.