This review provides a selected overview of some of the significant developments that have occurred in ion chromatography (IC) over recent years, together with some views on the future directions that IC will follow. The topics covered in the review include new stationary phases (especially monolithic phases), miniaturized IC systems (capillary, microchip and low-pressure formats), enhanced peak capacity through the use of complex eluent profiles and associated computer tools for simulation and prediction of retention, hyphenated IC systems and their use for speciation studies and metallomics, and the rapidly increasing use of IC in bioanalysis