European nations at the FIFA World Cup

Association football is the most popular sport in nearly every European country, and UEFA is one of the six confederations of world football's governing body FIFA. UEFA contains 55 national association members, some of which are partially or entirely located in Asia. A total of 33 of the current members of UEFA have competed at the men's FIFA World Cup, while the defunct East Germany qualified once.
European nations have won the FIFA World Cup a record 12 times.

Overview

1930

Results

Tournament standings

Quarter-finals = knockout round of 8: 1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present; second group stage, top 8: 1974–1978
Second round = second group stage, top 12: 1982; knockout round of 16: 1986–present

Team results by tournament

The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions, are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament.
For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament are shown.
;Legend

1st	Champions
2nd	Runners-up
3rd	Third place
4th	Fourth place
QF	Quarter-finals
R2	Round 2
R1	Round 1

Q	Qualified for upcoming tournament
TBD	To be determined
••	Qualified but withdrew
•	Did not qualify
•×	Withdrew or disqualified during qualification
×	Withdrew before qualification / Banned / Entry not accepted by FIFA
	Hosts
	Did not enter
style="width:10px"	Not a FIFA member

Overall team records

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. 3 points per win, 1 point per draw and 0 points per loss.

Team
	20	112	68	21	23	231	130	+101	225
	18	83	45	21	17	128	77	+51	156
	16	73	39	14	20	136	85	+51	131
	16	74	32	22	20	104	68	+36	118
	16	67	31	17	19	108	75	+33	110
	11	55	30	14	11	96	52	+44	104
	14	51	21	10	20	69	74	−5	73
	12	51	19	13	19	80	73	+7	70
	11	45	19	10	16	77	54	+23	67
	13	49	18	9	22	71	71	0	63
	8	35	17	6	12	61	41	+20	57
	9	38	17	6	15	49	50	−1	57
	12	41	14	8	19	55	73	−18	50
	9	32	15	3	14	87	57	+30	48
	6	30	13	8	9	43	33	+10	47
	9	33	12	5	16	47	49	−2	41
	7	29	12	4	13	43	47	−4	40
	6	23	9	6	8	31	29	+2	33
	7	21	8	5	8	30	32	−2	29
	8	23	4	7	12	25	41	−16	19
	7	26	3	8	15	22	53	−31	17
	2	10	5	1	4	20	17	+3	16
	3	13	2	8	3	10	10	0	14
	3	13	3	5	5	13	23	−10	14
	3	8	2	3	3	7	8	−1	9
	1	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
	3	10	2	2	6	5	20	−15	8
	1	5	2	1	2	5	7	−2	7
	2	8	1	4	3	5	10	−5	7
	1	4	1	1	2	5	7	−2	4
	2	6	1	1	4	5	10	−5	4
	1	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
	1	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
	1	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

; Breakdown of successor team records

Team
	8	30	11	5	14	44	45	−1	38
	1	3	1	0	2	3	4	−1	3

Team
	2	6	3	1	2	14	13	+1	10
	10	62	36	14	12	131	77	+54	122
	8	44	29	6	9	87	40	+46	93

Team
	7	31	15	6	10	53	34	+19	51
	4	14	4	4	6	24	20	+4	16

Team
	8	33	14	7	12	55	42	+13	49
	1	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7
	1	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0
	3	9	2	1	6	9	15	−6	7

Appearances

Ranking of teams by number of appearances

Team	Appearances	Record streak	Active streak	Debut	Most recent	Best result
	8	3	—	1934	1990
	1	1	0	2006	2006

Team	Appearances	Record streak	Active streak	Debut	Most recent	Best result
	7	4	—	1958	1990
	4	2	0	1994	2018

Team	Appearances	Record streak	Active streak	Debut	Most recent	Best result
	2	2	—	1934	1938
	10	10	10	1954	1990
	9	9	9	1994	2026

Team	Appearances	Record streak	Active streak	Debut	Most recent	Best result
	8	4	—	1930	1990
	1	1	—	1998	1998
	1	1	—	2006	2006
	3	2	2	2010	2022

Not qualified

22 of the 55 active FIFA and UEFA members have never qualified for the final tournament.
;Legend

TBD	To be determined
•	Did not qualify
×	Withdrew before qualification / Banned / Entry not accepted by FIFA
	Did not enter
style="width:10px"	Not a FIFA member