Japan vs United States: Mobile cellular subscriptions
Mobile cellular subscriptions over time
- Japan
- United States
How they compare
United States currently reports 390.99 million against 221.92 million in Japan, a difference of 169.07 million.
That makes United States's figure about 1.8 times Japan's.
Across all 49 years both countries report, United States has been ahead every year.
Japan ranks 6th and United States ranks 3rd of 214 countries.
United States has averaged higher in every one of the 7 decades both report.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Japan | United States | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1970s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1980s | 154,363 | 1.13 million | 977,477 | United States |
| 1990s | 19.14 million | 35.24 million | 16.10 million | United States |
| 2000s | 93.12 million | 194.34 million | 101.22 million | United States |
| 2010s | 156.95 million | 323.51 million | 166.56 million | United States |
| 2020s | 207.05 million | 367.96 million | 160.91 million | United States |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher mobile cellular subscriptions, Japan or United States?
- United States, at 390.99 million against 221.92 million in Japan as of 2024.
- What is the difference in mobile cellular subscriptions between Japan and United States?
- 169.07 million, with United States ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Japan and United States?
- 49 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2023.
- How do Japan and United States rank globally for mobile cellular subscriptions?
- Japan ranks 6th and United States ranks 3rd 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.