With all the internet power-users in California and New York, you might think those two states would have the fastest online speeds in the US — but you’d be wrong.

In fact, the states with the zippiest connections just might surprise you.

According to internet provider Akamai’s quarterly State of the Internet study, while the national average internet connection speed is 6.7 megabits (Mbps) per second, teeny tiny Delaware blew that away with 10.2 Mbps per second.

Runner-up honors went to New Hampshire, with Vermont, Utah and Rhode Island rounding out the top five.

If those seem like strange hubs for internet speed, keep in mind they all have one thing in common: relatively small populations. And with fewer people sharing bandwidth, each one of them gets a bigger slice of the pie.

Overall, though, connections in the US are getting much faster. Every state’s average speed increased by at least nine percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, something David Belson, director of market intelligence at Akamai, says is thanks in large part to “continued investment being made by both the telecoms as well as by the government.”

[CNN]

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