Tournament appearances by team, up to and including 2023:

Legend

• QF — Quarterfinalist
• R2 — Round 2 (1999: quarterfinal playoffs)
• R1 — Round 1 (pool stage)
• Q — Qualified
• •• — Invited but declined or qualified but withdrew
• • — Did not qualify
• × — Expelled after qualification/Disqualified
•   — Not invited (1987) / Did not enter or withdrew from qualifying
•   — Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

• ¹ Georgia and Russia were part of the Soviet Union in 1987, whose national team declined an invitation to the inaugural World Cup on political grounds.
• ² Samoa was known as Western Samoa until 1997.
• ³ South Africa did not compete in 1987 and 1991 while subject to an international sporting boycott in opposition to the country's apartheid regime.
• ⁴ Romania and Spain fielded ineligible players during the Rugby Europe Championship, incurring points deductions resulting in their non-qualification in 2019.^[1]
• ⁵ Spain had initially qualified, but were deducted 10 points for fielding an ineligible player in two qualifying games, resulting in Spain losing their place.^[2]

26 nations have thus far qualified for the Rugby World Cup. From 1987 until 2011, each edition featured at least one new debuting country. The 2015 tournament was the first edition with no country making its debut. It simply featured the return of Uruguay after not qualifying for the 2007 and 2011 editions. The 2019 was the same, with Romania disqualified and replaced by Russia.

The best result by hosts is champions, achieved by New Zealand in 1987 and 2011, and by South Africa in 1995. The worst result was by Wales in 1991 with only one win in pool play, although they did not host the final. The worst result by a country who hosted the final is held by England, being eliminated in the group stage in 2015.

New Zealand and South Africa are the only nations to successfully defend the World Cup as defending champions in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Australia and England achieved runner up in 2003 and 2007, respectively. The worst results were by Australia in 1995 and South Africa in 2011, both exiting in the quarter-finals.

This is a summary of the best performances of each confederation in each tournament.

This is a summary of the total number of participating teams by confederation in each tournament.

This section is a list of droughts associated with the participation of national rugby union teams in the Rugby World Cups.

Longest active droughts edit

Does not include teams that have not yet made their first appearance or teams that no longer exist.

Longest droughts overall edit

Only includes droughts begun after a team's first appearance and until the team ceased to exist updated to include qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

• History of the Rugby World Cup
• Rugby World Cup qualification
• Rugby World Cup Overall Record

• Rugbyworldcup.com
• IRB.com