The 1988 Individual Long Track World Championship was the 18th edition of the FIM speedway Individual Long Track World Championship.^[1] The event was held on 18 September 1988 at Scheeßel in Germany, which was West Germany at the time.^[2]

The Championship format was altered with 16 rider fields and 8 riders in each heat. The top 8 scorers qualified for the semi-final heats with (points carried forward).^[3]

The world title was won by Karl Maier of West Germany for the fourth time.^[4]

Pos	Rider	Heat Pts	Heat Pts	Heat Pts	Heat Pts	Heat Pts	Heat Pts	Total Pts
1	Karl Maier	7	7	7	7	7	7	42
2	Klaus Lausch	7	6	7	6	6	ef	32
3	Chris Morton	2	7	6	7	3	6	31
4	Hans Nielsen	4	6	6	ef	7	4	27
5	Gerd Riss	5	4	4	4	4	5	26
6	Heinrich Diener	6	3	5	5	5	2	26
7	Roland Dannö	6	5	ef	6	6	1	24
8	Simon Wigg	3	2	4	5	4	3	21
9	Egon Müller	3	4	5	3	ef	E	15
10	Jens Henry Nielsen	5	5	1	2	2	E	15
11	Sam Ermolenko	4	x	ef	4	5	E	13
12	Kai Niemi	2	1	3	1	2	E	9
13	Petr Vandirek	0	0	3	3	3	E	9
14	Steve Schofield	0	1	2	2	1	E	6
15	Antonín Kasper Jr.	1	3	f	-	-	E	4
16	Simon Cross	1	2	ef	ef	-	E	3
17	Steve Baker	-	-	-	1	1	E	2
18	Ari Koponen	-	-	2	-	0	E	2

• E = eliminated (no further ride)
• f = fell
• ef = engine failure
• x = excluded