Gigabit broadband coverage
The share of homes and businesses that can get gigabit-capable broadband, from Ofcom's Connected Nations data, down to each census output area.
- Published by
- Ofcom
- Level of detail
- Output area
- Published for
- United Kingdom, Nation, Council, Ward, Middle area, Neighbourhood and Output area
- Covers
- All four nations
- Updates
- Every few years
- Latest period
- January 2026
- Published
- 13 May 2026
- Fetched by Open Index
- 15 October 2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence 3.0
Where it covers
- England
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- England178,559 of 178,605 output areas have a figure
- Wales10,274 of 10,275 output areas have a figure
- Scotland46,265 of 46,363 output areas have a figure
145 output areas have no figure for January 2026. The map hatches each one and gives the reason.
- Ofcom's data lists no premises in this area, so it has no coverage figure. Output area in Barnet 036D, Output area in Hackney 020C, Output area in Hounslow 007B, Output area in Hounslow 016B, Output area in Hounslow 027A, Output area in Hounslow 027A and 139 more
How it is made
Open Index shows the figures as Ofcom publishes them, for the areas they were published for: the UK, nations, councils, wards, middle areas, neighbourhoods and output areas.
Rates for larger areas are worked out again from their own counts and populations, never averaged from output areas.
Zoom in past output area level and the map keeps the output area shapes and says so, rather than inventing detail.
- United KingdomJanuary 2026 only
- NationJanuary 2026 only
- CouncilJanuary 2026 only
- WardJanuary 2026 only
- Middle areaJanuary 2026 only
- NeighbourhoodJanuary 2026 only
- Output areaJanuary 2026 only
Before you use it
- This is availability. It counts homes and businesses that can order a gigabit-capable service, not those that have one or get those speeds.
- Gigabit-capable means the network can offer download speeds of 1 gigabit a second (1,000 Mbit/s).
- It covers all premises, homes and businesses together, as listed in Ordnance Survey AddressBase. Fixed-line broadband only, so mobile and satellite services are not counted.
- Broadband providers give Ofcom the data as a snapshot for January 2026. Ofcom publishes a new snapshot twice a year.
- Ofcom publishes percentages to one decimal place.
- Below council level, Ofcom publishes a figure for each census output area, and for each Data Zone in Northern Ireland (shown here as neighbourhoods). An output area holds about 100 premises, so one new connection can move the figure a lot.
- Neighbourhoods and middle areas are added up from the output areas inside them, and wards from the output areas that best fit them. Open Index adds up Ofcom's premises counts and divides at the end. It never averages percentages.
- Wards do not follow census areas exactly, so a ward figure covers the output areas that best fit it, not the ward's exact edge.
- Council, nation and UK figures are the ones Ofcom publishes, so they may differ a little from the sum of the areas inside them.
Colours on the map
Fixed breaks, held for every period, so colours mean the same over time.
How Open Index describes it
Page text on Open Index comes from this layer’s sentence rules, filled in with published figures. For Hackney:
In Hackney, 91.6% of homes and businesses could get gigabit-capable broadband in January 2026.
For the UK as a whole, the figure was 87.8%.
Source and licence
- Edition
- Connected Nations update: Spring 2026
- Published
- 13 May 2026
- Fetched by Open Index
- 15 October 2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence 3.0