Iceland had the highest percentage of broadband users in 2005, a new survey has revealed.

According to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Iceland had a broadband subscription rate of 26.7 per cent in December 2005, up 8.5 per cent on a year earlier.

South Korea was second with 25.4 per cent, followed by the Netherlands (25.3 per cent) in third, Denmark (25 per cent) in fourth and Switzerland (23.1 per cent) in fifth.

But the US still had the greatest number of broadband subscribers, with an estimated 49 million in December 2005.

Japan had the second largest subscriber base, with over 22.5 million users.

According to the OECD, South Korea had 12.2 million broadband users last December, followed by Germany with 10.7 million and the UK with 9.5 million.

Iceland had just over 78,000 subscribers, the study found.

The total number of broadband subscriptions throughout OECD countries rose from 136 million to 158 million in the six months to December 2005.

Broadband growth in the OECD held steady at 15 per cent in the second half of 2005, reaching 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in December.

The survey also found that DSL is still the most popular technology used to connect to the web.