Japan vs Upper middle income: Mobile cellular subscriptions
Mobile cellular subscriptions over time
- Japan
- Upper middle income
How they compare
Upper middle income currently reports 3.76 billion against 221.92 million in Japan, a difference of 3.54 billion.
That makes Upper middle income's figure about 16.9 times Japan's.
The two have swapped places 4 times across 37 shared years of data; in 1960 it was Upper middle income ahead.
Japan ranks 6th and Upper middle income ranks 6th of 214 countries.
Across the 6 decades both report, Japan averaged higher in 1 and Upper middle income in 3.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Japan | Upper middle income | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1970s | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1980s | 114,082 | 25,665 | 88,417 | Japan |
| 1990s | 19.14 million | 22.25 million | 3.11 million | Upper middle income |
| 2010s | 173.32 million | 3.12 billion | 2.94 billion | Upper middle income |
| 2020s | 207.05 million | 3.47 billion | 3.27 billion | Upper middle income |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher mobile cellular subscriptions, Japan or Upper middle income?
- Upper middle income, at 3.76 billion against 221.92 million in Japan as of 2025.
- What is the difference in mobile cellular subscriptions between Japan and Upper middle income?
- 3.54 billion, with Upper middle income ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Japan and Upper middle income?
- 37 years are reported by both, from 1960 to 2023.
- How do Japan and Upper middle income rank globally for mobile cellular subscriptions?
- Japan ranks 6th and Upper middle income ranks 6th 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.