South Korea ranks 18th among 69 countries in e-readiness or its electronic business environment.

That's according to a survey by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit that measured the amenability of economies to Internet-based business opportunities.

In a joint release Wednesday with the IBM Institute for Business Value, the British economic analysis firm gave South Korea a score of seven-point-nine out of ten, higher than last year’s score but resulting in an unchanged ranking.

The survey assessed a country’s broadband access, mobile communication penetration, IT innovation and online security.

Denmark ranked first trailed by the United States and Switzerland. Six of the top ten are European states.

In Asia, Hong Kong ranked 10th, Singapore 13th and Japan 21st.