How Many Elements Are in the Periodic Table?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 09, 2020

There are 118 known elements on the periodic table. The most recently discovered element, Ununoctium, was first reported by Russian scientists from Dubna in 2002.

Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev is usually credited with the first known publication of a periodic table of elements, in 1869. He created the table by arranging known elements into rows and columns based on atomic weight and the similarity between elements. Using this method, he was also able to predict the existence of heretofore unknown elements, such as Gallium and Germanium. The standard periodic table style in use today is attributed to Horace Deming, an American scientist.