The 2001 IIHF Women's World Championships was held April 2–8, 2001 in six cities in the state of Minnesota.

Team Canada won their seventh consecutive gold medal at the World Championships defeating the United States.

[1] With the promotion and relegation format now in use, the top seven nations were joined by Kazakhstan, the winner of Group B in 2000.

World Championship Group B was renamed Division I and was played again with an eight team tournament which was hosted by Briançon in France.

Switzerland won the tournament with a 2–1 victory over  Japan to see them bounce straight back to the main World Championship in 2003.