South Korea's per capita coal consumption was the fifth largest in the world last year. Asia's fourth-largest economy still relies on fossil fuels for most of its energy, data showed Tuesday.

The average coal use per person stood at 2.29 tons of coal equivalent in 2014, following Kazakhstan, Australia, Taiwan and South Africa, the report by the International Energy Agency showed.

The amount surpasses the 2.07 TCE per capita consumption in China, the world's biggest coal consumer, and is double the average consumption among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based organization said.

South Korea's per capita coal consumption has steadily grown from 0.85 TCE in 1990 to 2.29 TCE in 2014, bucking the global trend of relying less on fossil fuels. The comparable figure for OECD members has decreased from 1.43 TCE in 1990 to 1.13 TCE in 2014, it said.

The nation's electricity production capacity by coal reaches 27,338 megawatts, and it is expected to rise under the government's plans to operate an additional 18,144 megawatts of coal power plants by 2023.

South Korea generates 35.6 percent of its energy from crude oil, followed by 30.5 percent from coal. Numbers for natural gas and nuclear power stood at 16.3 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively, according to the IEA. (Yonhap)