A report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism revealed that the percentage of UK web users who pay for online news has increased from 4% to 9% in the last year.
The report said there are marked differences with countries where people were late adopters of online services or in which the legacy of free online news provision is less pronounced.
The survey was carried out on over 11,000 people across nine countries including in the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan and Denmark.
According to the study, the highest rates of paying for digital news were seen in Brazil, Italy, Spain, Japan, and France.
The study suggests that those aged 25 to 34 in the UK are more willing to pay for digital content.
The most popular type of one-off payment in all countries is for downloading and using an app or making an in-app purchase.
In France, Spain, and Italy, about one-third of those who said they paid for news made an app purchase in the last year.
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The figures were slightly lower in the US, UK, and Denmark, perhaps because a number of news publishers have moved to making apps an ongoing subscription payment or part of a print/subscription bundle.
The study found that smartphone and tablet users in the US are much more likely to pay for news, even after controlling for factors such as income and interest in news.
People with Apple devices are more likely to pay than those using other operating systems, the study found.
