RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROWTH IN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) AND GROWTH IN THE CHEMICAL-ENGINEERING LITERATURE IN 5 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

Data were compiled and linearly correlated on the growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) with the academic chemical engineering literatu re over a recent 26-year period for five different English-speaking co untries, namely, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, India and A ustralia. The publication figures were also scaled to the total number of chemical engineering schools in the country; furthermore, all of t hese data were normalized from zero to unity, using the figures far th e most recent year (1996) as the denominators, and then correlated aga inst each other in linear fashion. Resulting confidence levels were in excess of 99% for each of the individual five countries, as well as f or the entire set of normalized data for all of the countries.