- The UK is now 8th globally for VPN adoption
- There have been over 10.7 million VPN downloads in the first half of 2025
- The Online Safety Act appears to be behind what could be another record year
The UK has become one of the world’s fastest growing VPN markets, according to independent research from Cybernews. Additionally, the UK ranks eighth globally for VPN adoption at the time of writing.
The UK is now the leading G7 nation in terms of VPN usage, and one of only three European countries included in the top 10 list.
Data shows that the UK logged over 10.7 million VPN app downloads in the first half of 2025, surpassing countries such as the US, France and Germany.
With more Brits now searching for the best VPN service to protect their privacy, the UK is on course to break another record this year based on the number of downloads.
The UK is one of the leading countries worldwide for VPN usage
According to the latest research by Cybernews, the UK is now in the top 10 countries worldwide for VPN adoption. The data puts the UK ahead of digital heavyweights such as the US, Germany, France and Japan.
To decipher its VPN adoption numbers, Cybernews turned to app downloads across the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, then compared them to the population of each country.
It is not an ideal method as some people may not use mobile apps and others may download more than once. Also, store locations will not always reflect a person’s physical location, so the data may be skewed. But with that margin of error in mind, this is still one of the most useful glimpses of VPN adoption we’ve seen in recent years.
VPN usage in the UK has accelerated sharply since 2021. Cybernews data puts 2021 adoption at 15.80%, followed by an increase in 2022 to 21.70%. It has been on a steady, but slower, rise since then, reaching 23.16% in 2023 and 24.08% in 2024.
The data for the first half of 2025 is also promising. The UK has already achieved 15.38% in H1 2025, so if this trend continues in H2, we may see another big increase in VPN downloads.
In terms of the sheer number of downloads, the first half of 2025 is already approaching the total for 2024. 16.65 million downloads were recorded in 2024; meanwhile, the first half of 2025 alone has seen 10.70 million downloads.
Between 2020 and H1 2025, the top 3 countries in terms of VPN adoption are the UAE (with a whopping 65.78%), Qatar (55.43%) and Singapore (38.23%). The Netherlands leads the way for Europe with 21.77%, followed by the UK with 19.63%. Luxembourg closes the list with 17.30 per cent.
The Role of the Online Safety Act in Accelerating Adoption
The Online Safety Act is a comprehensive law passed in 2023 aimed at protecting internet users, especially children, from harmful content.
It requires tech companies, social media platforms and websites to remove content that Britain’s watchdog, Ofcom, has deemed harmful or illegal, such as material about child abuse, the promotion of terrorism and deepfake pornography.
In addition, the law requires websites to enforce strict age verification and moderation for adult content. By law, users must prove their age by uploading their government-issued IDs.
As a result of this age verification requirement, and more generally privacy concerns, there was an increase in VPN use across the UK to circumvent this requirement. VPN apps also topped UK app stores.
The Online Security Act only came into effect at the end of July 2025, so its true impact will only be seen when we get the full picture at the end of the year.
The UK isn’t the only country on its way to reaching new heights in VPN adoption. VPN usage in Afghanistan recently increased by 35,000% due to new social media restrictions imposed by the government. This may also show up in next year’s data.
