URUMQI - The number of internet users in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has grown so quickly in recent years that the rate of web users is higher than the national average, local authorities said Friday.

According to the Xinjiang regional telecommunications administrative bureau, the number of web users at the end of 2016 in Xinjiang totalled 12.96 million, including 12.45 million using smart phones, accounting for 54.9 percent of the region's population, as compared with the national average of 53.2 percent.

Among the web users, females took up 54.4 percent. Most of the web users were young people, including 24.1 percent below 20 years old and 33.7 percent between 20 and 29. Both figures were higher than the national average.

A striking feature of the web users was that they were better educated compared with other places in China, with 31 percent college graduates, 10.5 percentage points higher than the national average.