0957-4174/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2012.02.063 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: michael@mail.tku.edu.tw (S.-H. Li In order to determine how data mining techniques (DMT) and their applications have developed, during the past decade, this paper reviews data mining techniques and their applications and development, through a survey of literature and the classification of articles, from 2000 to 2011. Keyword indices and article abstracts were used to identify 216 articles concerning DMT applications, from 159 academic journals (retrieved from five online databases), this paper surveys and classifies DMT, with respect to the following three areas: knowledge types, analysis types, and architecture types, together with their applications in different research and practical domains. A discussion deals with the direction of any future developments in DMT methodologies and applications: (1) DMT is finding increasing applications in expertise orientation and the development of applications for DMT is a problem-oriented domain. (2) It is suggested that different social science methodologies, such as psychology, cognitive science and human behavior might implement DMT, as an alternative to the methodologies already on offer. (3) The ability to continually change and acquire new understanding is a driving force for the application of DMT and this will allow many new future applications. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.