Report of Independent Accountants
To the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of
Vanguard World Funds
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Vanguard
World Funds (the "Funds") for the periods ended August 31, 2000 we
considered their internal controls, including control activities for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for
the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to
comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance
on internal control.
The management of the Funds is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments
by management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs
of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to the
entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes that
are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may occur
and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal control
to future periods is subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of their design and
operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design
or operation of one or more of the internal control components does
not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements
caused by error or fraud in amounts that would be material in
relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal
course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted
no matters involving internal control and its operation, including
controls for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be
material weaknesses as defined above as of August 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the
Board of Trustees, management and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by
anyone other than these specified parties.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
September 29, 2000
1
2
