ABSTRACT
One can take the second international congress of mathematicians held in Paris in 1900 as the starting point for the study of mathematics in this century. About 200 mathematicians participated, representing some ten countries, mostly from western Europe. At the end of the century more than 4000 attended the 21st international congress held in Kyoto in 1990, or the 22nd held in Zurich in 1994. By that time more than 50 countries were members of the International Mathematics Union. The number of published research papers is now close to 90,000 annually and the mathematics community — people engaged in research in this discipline — comprises several tens of thousands of members distributed throughout the world. These figures apart, the impact of mathematics on industrial societies has increased enormously, and the crucial role played by the circulation and digitalization of information offers it another important field of application whose eventual impact we cannot predict. Throughout the century mathematics has always had the lion’s share of education and all countries, whatever their educational systems, have chosen to give mathematics a decisive place in the curriculum and in the selection of elites, so that there has been great demand for teachers in this discipline. 1
