Measuring Data Center Growth | ISOC Pulse

Measuring Data Center Growth

16 July 2026

Robbie Mitchell

Internet Society

Categories:

Countries

In short:

Data centers have become integral infrastrucre for the modern Internet.

Since July 2020, 136 countries have registered new data centers in PeeringDB, 21 of which are the first in their country.

The United States has registered the most number of data centers in the last six years, however the largest growth has been seen in Asia and Africa.

The Internet cannot exist in its modern form without data centers. Nearly every app, website, and cloud service we use relies on these facilities to process and deliver information.<br>Although their growing ‘popularity’ may seem recent (Figure 1), given their role in the expanding AI market, many countries have seen significant development in the last six years.

Figure 1 —Searches for data centers have grown significantly since July 2025, propelled a 4,350% increase in searches for AI data centers (Google Trends).

Drawing on Pulse API data collated from PeeringDB, a user-maintained registry of networks and infrastructure, we can see that 136 countries registered new data centers since July 2020, 21 of which are the first in their country.<br>Unsurprisingly, the United States hosts the largest number of registered data centers of any country (n=1,380), followed by Brazil (n=348), Germany (n=330), the UK (n=248), and India (n=245). Of these, India has seen the biggest increase in data centers (134%) since July 2020, followed by Brazil (81%).

However, Saudi Arabia claims the largest overall percentage increase in data centers over this period (1000%), followed by the Philippines and Qatar (Table 1). Forty countries have seen a 100% increase in the number of data centers since July 2020, most of which are in Asia and Africa.

Table 1 — Country's with greatest growth rate of registered data centeres since 2020.

Country

Region

Number of data centers July 2020

Number of data centers July  2020

Percentage growth

Saudi Arabia

Asia

22

1000%

Philippines

Asia

25

525%

Qatar

Asia

500%

Côte d'Ivoire

Africa

400%

Pakistan

Asia

19

375%

Rwanda

Africa

300%

Brunei Darussalam

Asia

300%

Korea

Asia

12

47

292%

Mexico

Americas

14

54

286%

Tanzania

Africa

15

275%

Data Center Growth By Region

Looking at the number of registered data centers by region (Figure 2), we see that the Americas and Europe are well above the rest. However, Asia has experienced the greatest growth (115%) over the last six years.

Asia

India, Indonesia, and Japan dominate the data market share in Asia (2-3.5x the next-highest country, Hong Kong), although West Asian countries such as Türkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are growing as they seek to connect Asia to Europe.<br>New countries to have registered data centers in Asia since 2020, include Laos (3), the Maldives (1), Sri Lanka (1), and Tajikistan (1).

Africa

Africa has experienced 85% growth in the number of data centers since July 2020, though growth has slowed over the past 12 months, with only seven new data centers registered on the continent in PeeringDB and four deregistered.<br>South Africa (n=28), Nigeria (n=18), Tanzania (n=15), and Kenya (n=14) accounted for 87% of data center growth in the past six years, while 12 countries—Botswana, Cabo Verde, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Namibia, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, and Togo—registered their first data center.

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand have driven data center growth by 73% since July 2020, adding 163 and 93 data centers to PeeringDB, respectively. However, there has been no growth in the last 12 months, with Australia registering two fewer than this time in 2025.<br>Three countries—Micronesia, New Caledonia, and Solomon Islands—have registered their first data centers since 2020.

Americas

No surprise, the USA has driven the majority of the Americas’ 50% growth over the last six years, registering 335 new data centers in this time. The same can be said over the past 12 months, with the USA (n=34) and Brazil (n=10) accounting for over 80% of the 54 new data centers registered since July 2025.<br>Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay experienced more than 100% growth since 2020, while Nicaragua and Uruguay have seen a decline in the total number of registered data centers.<br>New countries in the Americas registering data centers since 2020 include Antigua and Barbuda (1), Bahamas (1), Bonaire (1), Saint Barthélemy (1), Suriname (2), and Venezuela (8).

Europe

Finally, Europe has experienced the softest increase in data centers since July 2020 (36%), predominantly driven by its top five: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Russia, and Italy.<br>However, Iceland (9) and Finland (4) have accounted for more than half of the new registrations (n=24) over the last 12 months. During the same time, Belarus, Croatia,...