How many teams at the next FIFA Women's World Cup 2027?

The Women's World Cup 2023 has come to its conclusion, with a record number of teams making the long journey to Australia and New Zealand to fight it out for the biggest prize in women's football.

Despite the competition only being 32 years old — much younger than its men's counterpart — it has experienced a rapid rate of expansion in teams since the first tournament in 1991, and it has once again expanded for this edition.

The Sporting News looks at the expansion over the years, and also at how many teams will be at the next Women's World Cup in 2027.

MORE: Complete schedule for 2023 Women's World Cup

How many teams at FIFA Women's World Cup 2023?

For the first time ever, there were 32 teams at the Women's World Cup this time around, which brings it on par with the amount of teams featured at the men's World Cup in recent years.

The expansion came after a large rise in attendances at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, as well as a general explosion in the popularity of women's football – particularly in Europe.

This means that the amount of games played at the tournament has increased from 52 to 64.

The breakdown of which teams qualified from the various confederations is below:

• AFC (Asia): Australia, China, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea
• CONCACAF (North and Central America): USA, Canada, Haiti, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama
• UEFA (Europe): England, Denmark, Italy, France, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden
• CAF (Africa): Nigeria, Morocco, Zambia, South Africa
• COMNEBOL (South America): Brazil, Argentina, Colombia
• OFC (Oceania): New Zealand

How many teams at FIFA Women's World Cup 2027? 

When announcing the initial expansion to 32 teams in 2019, FIFA confirmed that this change would apply for all World Cups in the future, which means there will also be 32 teams competing at the 2027 Women's World Cup.

Despite the fact the current World Cup is yet to start, the bidding process for hosting the 2027 World Cup has already commenced, with a number of nation expressing interests in hosting it.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are conducting a joint bid between the three countries, while Brazil, South Africa and the USA and Mexico (the latter two a co-hosting arrangement) have also expressed interest in hosting the event.

FIFA will name the hosts of the tournament on May 17, 2024 when the FIFA congress convenes.

Women's World Cup expansion over the years

The first two versions of the Women's World Cup in 1991 only had 12 teams competing, with three groups of four followed by a knockout round featuring eight teams.

This then expanded to 16 teams in 1999, which allowed for more teams from smaller nations to qualify on a regular basis as well as increasing the amount of games played.

This remained in place until the 2015 tournament, when there was another expansion to 24 teams broken up into six groups and the introduction of the round of 16 for the first time at the tournament.