A member of a women's rights group sheds tears during a rally to remember the woman who was sexually assaulted and murdered on a hiking trail in Seoul in this photo taken on Aug. 24, 2023. Yonhap

More than one out of four sex crimes in Korea are committed online as digital technology continues to play an ever greater role in people's daily lives, a report showed, Thursday.

Released by Statistics Korea, the annual report on social safety also showed that the number of online sex crimes more than doubled for two consecutive years.

The common types of online sex crimes committed via computers, smartphones and other digital devices include child pornography, sex solicitation, sexting, sex trafficking and sextortion.

According to the report, the number of such crimes totaled 10,605 in 2022, accounting for 25.59 percent of 41,433 cases of sexual violence that took place both online and offline combined in the same year.

The overall number of sex crimes increased from 32,898 in 2021 to 41,433 in 2022.

The increase was mainly attributable to a surge in the number of online sex crimes that more than doubled for two straight years — from 2,070 in 2020 to 5,079 in 2021 and then to 10,065 a year after.

The report also included data on the suicide rate, which Korea has been consistently ranking on top for years among OECD member countries.

The number of suicides per every 100,000 Koreans came to 25.2 in 2022, down from 26 the previous year.

The 2022 tally also decreased from the peak of 28.5 in 2013. Nevertheless, it remained at the highest level among OECD members and fared well above the OECD average of 10.7.

Concerning car accidents caused by drunk driving, the number rose 1.1 percent to 15,059 cases in 2022.

The percentage of drivers who drove drunk at least once last year reached 3.3 percent of all drivers in 2022, unchanged from the previous year.

The rate of people who drank at least once per month inched up by 0.5 of a percentage point to 54 percent in 2022, marking the first on-year growth in six years. While the ratio of such men dropped 0.2 of a percentage point to 66.9 percent, the ratio of women rose 1.3 of a percentage point to 41.2 percent.

In the middle of a deepening climate crisis, the number of victims who were killed or went missing due to heavy rainfall, typhoons and other natural disasters reached 64 in 2022, up 52.4 percent from a year earlier.

The figure was the second highest in the past decade.

Natural disasters caused economic losses of 592.7 billion won ($430.49 million) in 2022, nearly nine times higher than 66.1 billion won in 2021.