There is provided an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer with 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%, wherein a block character of ethylene units in the ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer is 0.90 to 0.99. Such an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer has excellent high-speed coating ability and water-resistant adhesiveness, particularly when being used as an adhesive.