Which chemical elements are most important? In intmductory chemistry, which elements should be studied? In advanced courses, which elements should receive most attention? I hope to answer these questions in this paper.The importance of an element is, of course, relative, depending entirely on thecontext in which it is assessed. An element that is very important from one point of view may be quite unimportant from another. Moreover, the value of anelement, inone context, is somewhat subjective, depending on your criterion.I will trv to reduce the effects of relativitv and subiectivitv by considering the elements in a variety i f context; and b; . seeking rational measures of their relative im~ortance. I -then merge the results for the different contexts to rank the clementsin orderofimoonanceoverall. Whileconsiderable subjectivity remains the final list, I hope that it will nevertheless be useful to educators and instructors in deciding how to divide attention among different elements.Natural Importance For people, the most important parts of the universe are the earth and the sun, which supplies the earth with energy.