PHOTO: Sergei Sverdelov/istockphoto

According to recent Organisation for Economic Co‑Operation and Development statistics, the United States ranked a meager 14th in “average advertised broadband download speed” at 8.86 ­megabits per second. That’s less than a tenth the speed in world leader Japan and about one-fifth that in France and South Korea. A common excuse for the poor ranking is that the U.S. population is more spread out and therefore more difficult to serve. But U.S. broadband speeds even fall short of sparsely populated Australia. institute of standards and technology Australia. See our chart showing how the top 20 countries line up.