The improved isopiestic method has been used to obtain activities of water for aqueous solutions of poly(ethylene glycol) 400/NaCl at T = (293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, and 313.15) K. From these measurements, values of the vapour pressure of solutions were determined. The effect of temperature on the (vapour + liquid) equilibrium of {poly(ethylene glycol) + NaCl + H2O} systems has been studied. It was found that the slope of the constant activity lines for water increased with increasing temperature. The results have been discussed on the basis of the effect of temperature on the hydrophobicity of the polymer. Also it was found that the vapour pressure depression for an aqueous (PEG + NaCl) system is more than the sum of those for the corresponding binary solutions. Furthermore, the segment-based local composition Wilson model has been used for the correlation of the experimental water activity data. The agreement between the correlation and the experimental data are good. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.