Italy vs Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income): Mobile cellular subscriptions
Mobile cellular subscriptions over time
- Italy
- Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)
How they compare
Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) currently reports 1.10 billion against 78.67 million in Italy, a difference of 1.02 billion.
That makes Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s figure about 14.0 times Italy's.
The two have swapped places 2 times across 53 shared years of data; in 1960 it was Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) ahead.
Italy ranks 25th and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) ranks 23rd of 212 countries.
Across the 7 decades both report, Italy averaged higher in 2 and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) in 3.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Italy | Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1970s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1980s | 13,167 | 398 | 12,769 | Italy |
| 1990s | 7.79 million | 1.46 million | 6.34 million | Italy |
| 2000s | 68.93 million | 113.12 million | 44.19 million | Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) |
| 2010s | 89.40 million | 662.45 million | 573.05 million | Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) |
| 2020s | 78.27 million | 991.60 million | 913.33 million | Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher mobile cellular subscriptions, Italy or Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)?
- Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income), at 1.10 billion against 78.67 million in Italy as of 2025.
- What is the difference in mobile cellular subscriptions between Italy and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)?
- 1.02 billion, with Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Italy and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)?
- 53 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2024.
- How do Italy and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) rank globally for mobile cellular subscriptions?
- Italy ranks 25th and Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) ranks 23rd of 212 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.