An ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer may have an ethylene unit content of 1 mol % or more and less than 20 mol %, a viscosity-average polymerization degree of 200 to 5000 and a saponification degree of 80 to 99.7 mol %. A block character of ethylene units in the ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer may be 0.90 to 0.99. Such an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer may have excellent high-speed coating ability and water-resistant adhesiveness, particularly when being used as an adhesive.