Thanks to their third-place finish at the South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC) Women’s Championship held in Brazil last year, Uruguay return to world championship action after missing the past six editions – appearing last time at Brazil 2011 where they recorded their highest ranking (20th).

Germany/Netherlands 2025 marks the sixth time the South American nation of Paraguay have qualified for an IHF Women’s World Championship.

They became the 31st side to qualify for the event after booking their ticket by winning the SCAHC (South and Central America Handball Confederation) ‘Last Chance’ qualification tournament last April.

For the third time in history and for the third time in a row, the Islamic Republic of Iran have qualified for the IHF Women’s World Championship, establishing themselves as one of the most consistent Asian sides in women’s handball over the last years.

Four years ago, Switzerland missed the chance to progress to their maiden edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship, when they lost against Czechia, 49:55 on aggregate, in the European Qualifiers – Phase 2.

For the previous edition of the world handball flagship competition, Switzerland had to go again through Czechia, this time conceding a 58:68 aggregate loss and missing out once again.

Six years ago, the Netherlands secured their biggest performance in history at the IHF Women’s World Championship, securing the title in a dramatic last-gasp win against Spain at Japan 2019.

It followed a run of fantastic performances, with a silver medal at Denmark 2015 and a bronze medal at Germany 2017, as in only three editions of the IHF Women’s World Championship, the European side managed to complete the hat-trick of medals.

Senegal are returning to the IHF Women’s World Championship for the third time in history and for the second consecutive time in a row, after finishing 18th in both of their previous appearances in the competition.

But while in 2019 they only secured one win in the preliminary round, against Kazakhstan, 30:20, and then beat DR Congo, in the President’s Cup, two years ago they qualified for the main round with a win against the People’s Republic of China, 22:15, and then produced a huge shock drawing against Croatia, 22:22.

Despite laying claim to having one of the best women’s teams in the world in the early 2010s, following their London 2012 Olympic Games silver and European Championship gold the same year, Montenegro have never finished higher than fifth in an IHF Women’s World Championship.

Romania are the only team in history to have taken part at each and every edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship, this being their 27th appearance. However, the European side has been navigating on shaky ground over the last editions, having finished 10th at Germany 2017, 12th at Japan 2019, 13th at Spain 2021 and 12th at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023.