South Koreans used an average 3.83 gigabytes of data with their smartphones per month last year to rank eighth among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed Tuesday

According to the OECD report, Finland was No. 1 with the monthly data usage by smartphones standing at 10.95 GB in 2016, followed by Latvia with 8.21 GB, Austria with 6.28 GB, Sweden with 4.38 GB, Denmark with 4.37 GB, Estonia with 4.13 GB and Iceland with 3.92 GB.

Among the surveyed OECD member states, the Netherlands ranked the lowest with the average monthly usage of 1.02 GB, while the overall average of OECD member states came to 2.3 GB.

Separate data showed that the monthly data usage by South Korean smartphone users has increased in recent years partly on the back of a rise in rate plans that offer unlimited connectivity by the country's mobile carriers.

The three mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- each launched rate plans that offer an unrestricted amount of data. The average amount of the rate plan is about 60,000 won ($53) per month.

Subscribing for unlimited data plans requires higher basic rates by all three mobile carriers, but the ministry said the growing number of smartphone users who consume more data than traditional cell phone owners are willing to pay the additional cost. (Yonhap)