It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member nations: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.

BWF World Ranking is used for determining the qualification for entry and seeding for the BWF-sanctioned tournament.

The points awarded is based on the final results of each tournament participated for the past 52 weeks.

The BWF regularly organises seven major international badminton events and two events for para-badminton: Major tournaments: Other major tournaments: Para major tournaments: Event(s) are no longer held regularly: Grade 2 tournaments, known as BWF World Tour was sanctioned into six levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are: The events that were formerly held from 2007 to 2017 are: Grade 3 tournaments, known as Continental Circuit was sanctioned into three levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are: The BWF bestows special honours onto players, umpires, sponsors, and other individuals for their achievement in badminton or for their contributions to badminton.

[11] The BWF and Octagon developed a rule that women badminton players must wear dresses or skirts "to ensure attractive presentation."