According to the poll of 61,238 people older than 3 years old in 25,000 households by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning in 2016, 88.3 percent of South Koreans used the internet, with the number of users estimated at 43.64 million, up 3.2 percentage points, or 1.7 million, from the previous year. Nearly 9 out of 10 South Koreans use the internet, the survey showed.

By age, the internet usage rate reached 100 percent for teens and those in their 20s, followed by 99.8 percent for those in their 30s and 99.4 percent for those in their 40s.

People in their 50s registered a usage rate of 94.9 percent, while more than 1 in 2 people older than 60 used the internet, the poll showed. The internet usage rate for people aged 60 and older rose by the steepest 14.9 percentage points to 51.4 percent, it found.