The United States dropped seven spots during the past year to finish nineteenth in global Digital Quality of Life rankings from Surfshark, a provider of cybsecurity technology. The drop in the U.S. rankings occurred, despite the country’s gains in broadband speeds and adoption.

Broadband speeds are one of five categories that Surfshark considered in making its rankings. The U.S. finished in the top six out of 121 counties studied in three out of the five categories.

The country finished second in e-government, fifth in e-infrastructure (which is the broadband adoption category) and sixth in Internet quality (which is the speed category). But it was forty-third in e-security and thirty-second in affordability.

The fifth annual ratings by Surfshark assessed 121 countries accounting for 92% of the global population.

Digital Quality of Life Rankings

Key results concerning the United States:

• The United States surpassed Canada (22nd) and Australia (30th) in digital quality of life.
• The United States’ internet quality is 50% higher than the global average and ranks sixth in the world.
• The United States’ fixed internet speed (247 Mbps) has improved by 19% compared to last year, while mobile speed (144 Mbps) has improved by 25%.
• Just like last year, the United States performed worst in the e-security pillar (43rd), which would need to improve by 46% to match the best-ranking country (Belgium).
• The United States took first place in North America.

The high point for the U.S., of course, was its second place finish in e-government. Even that has a negative element: The U.S was first last year but was passed by Singapore.

Surfshark says that Internet quality in the U.S. was 50% higher than the global average and that the fixed Internet average speed was 247 Mbps. That was not too far behind that of Singapore, which topped the category at 300 Mbps. The U.S. mobile Internet average was 144 Mbps, less than half of the UAE’s leading score of 310 Mbps.

“Compared to Canada, the United States’ mobile internet is 25% faster, while fixed broadband is 9% faster,” Surfshark said. “Since last year, mobile internet speed in the United States has improved by 25%, while fixed broadband speed has grown by 19%.”

Surfshark found that Americans have to work 51 minutes per month to afford fixed broadband and over an hour and a half to afford mobile Internet.

The top ten finishers overall were France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Estonia, Austria, Switzerland and Singapore.