The chemical properties of coal have conspicuous impacts on reactivity and thermal conversion of coal. Nevertheless, the quantitative investigation on correlations of coal chemical properties is still insufficient. The quantified correlations between fuel ratio and various indices of coal chemical property is yet lacking, and little research was conducted to quantitatively describe the proximate and ultimate analyses using ternary diagrams. Here, we investigated the correlations of coal chemical properties based on database of real-time (experimental or actual) data in China. Some noteworthy variations and quantified correlations among chemical properties of coal were firstly demonstrated. The majority of coals (similar to 87%) lie within a range defined by the fuel ratio of 1.0-10.0. Ternary correlations of ultimate and proximate analyses show different distributions with coal rank. The index of coal explosibility is slightly lowered with the increasing carbon content, while the increase of oxygen content leads to certain rise of coal explosibility. In addition, the majority of low-fusion coals have high levels of volatile matter. The occurrence and content of minerals both present considerable influences on ash fusion behaviors. The present study can provide useful information for better understanding the correlations between chemical properties and reactivities of coal. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.