Data for nine rare‐earth elements (REE) determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP‐AES) in sixty international geochemical reference samples (igneous and sedimentary rocks, soils and sediments) are presented. The method is based on acid digestion of the sample and cation‐exchange separation from matrix elements. Good agreement is generally achieved between the results of this work and the recent compilation values. The present paper includes analytical data on several reference materials for which existing data are rather scarce or even inex