The first world championships in orienteering was held in Fiskars, Finland from 1–2 October 1966, with two medal events being contested.

The IOF was founded on 21 May 1961 at a Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark by the orienteering national federations of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

11 different nations participated in the 1966 World Orienteering Championships, all of them from Europe, including all founding members of the IOF except for West Germany along with teams from Great Britain and Austria.

[3] The gold medal for the men's individual race went to Åge Hadler from Norway, and the women's winner was Ulla Lindkvist from Sweden.

This record would hold until it was broken by fellow Swede Tove Alexandersson, who won eleven gold medals in a row and was the second orienteer to win the Svenska Dagbladet award.

1991 also saw the first gold medal for Switzerland at the world championships, as the relay team of Thomas Bührer, Alain Berger, Urs Flühmann and Christian Aebersold won ahead of Norway and Finland.

In 2018, Tove Alexandersson from Sweden started a winning streak in the world championships that lasted until 2022.

In 2023, Daniel Hubmann from Switzerland set a record as the oldest orienteer to win a gold medal at the World Championships, at the age of 40 years and 61 days.

On IOF's 23rd congress in Lausanne in 2012, it was decided that a sprint relay event would be added in the 2014 World Championships in Italy.

[8] The sprint relay is competed in urban areas and consists of four-orienteer mixed-gender teams with starting order woman-man-man-woman.