In 1960, representatives from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies met to discuss standardising the rules of the sport. This led to the establishment of the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball (which later became the International Federation of Netball Associations). Formal rules were established at this inaugural meeting and a decision to hold World Championship tournaments every four years was also made. The first World Netball Championship was held in 1963 and was hosted by England. The tournament was renamed to the World Cup as opposed to "Championships" in 2015. Since 1991 the tournament has maintained a format allowing semi-finals and finals matches to be played, where previously the tournament held no finals and instead utilised the round-robin system, which occasionally led to more than one nation being crowned world champions.[1][2]
Australia or New Zealand have won all of the titles, though emerging netball nations England, South Africa and Jamaica have come close to dislodging the top-tier nations on several occasions. In 1979 Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago were all joint champions. South Africa finished runners-up in 1995, England too in 2023. Jamaica have contested several bronze medal matches and come up short in narrow semi-final defeats. The reigning world champions are Australia, who defeated England in the 2023 final. They will defend their title in Sydney, Australia in 2027.[2][3]
Participated in qualifying tournaments, but did not qualify
Appearances by countries/teams which no longer exist are not shown.Liz Ellis, the most capped international player in the history of Australian netball, won the competition three times as part of the Australian national team.
International Federation of Netball Associations (15 June 2008). "History of Netball". Archived from the original on 6 March 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
Netball Singapore (2011). "About Us". Archived from the original on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
Netball Singapore (2011b). "Milestones". Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
Thompson, Shona M. (December 2002). "Women and sport in New Zealand". In Pfister, Gertrud; Hartmann-Tews, Ilse (eds.). Sport and Women: Social Issues in International Perspective. International Society for Comparative Physical Education & Sport. Routledge. ISBN0-415-24628-8.
World Netball Championships 2011 Singapore (2011). "History". Archived from the original on 14 March 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ abFourth place was shared because there were no finals: both teams won four of their eight matches, losing three times and drawing against each other. The tournament rules of the time did not provide any way of determining an outright winner.
^ abcThe title was shared because there were no finals: the top 10 teams played off in a round robin. Each of the top three teams won eight out of nine matches, losing once to one of the other two. The tournament rules of the time did not provide any way of determining an outright winner.
^ abThere were no finals: the top 4 teams played a round-robin tournament. Australia and Trinidad & Tobago ended the tournament with one win (against England), one loss (to New Zealand) and one draw (with each other). The tournament rules of the time did not provide any way to break this tie.
^Suva, Fiji was scheduled to host the 2007 competition but was stripped of hosting rights following the December 2006 coup. The hosting rights were subsequently awarded to Auckland, New Zealand, and the competition date moved from July to November 2007.
