WOD – World Orienteering Day

In May 2023, between the dates May 17th and May 23rd, any activity held can be registered as a World Orienteering Day event.

Read more Guidelines Register event

Days until World
Orienteering day

Registered
regions/countries

Registered
events

536

World
participants

68205

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2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

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Participants

World

Our Vision

The International Orienteering Federation´s goals regarding the organisation of this annual event are as follows:
Increasing the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, increasing the number of participants both in the schools’ activities, as well and in the clubs’ activities in all countries of National Federations, helping teachers to implement orienteering in a fun and educational way and to get more new countries to take part in orienteering.

Visionary course of action

Each club of all national Orienteering Federations gets in touch with at least one school. As teachers might need help to implement orienteering so the lessons are a fun and exciting experience, the IOF is working on providing teaching materials in different languages. The Global Development Commission of the IOF coordinates and links interested orienteering people from its national federations together in a school orienteering network in order to exchange materials and experiences. After the event, the students get to keep their maps to take home and show to their friends and family.

WOD 2023

In May, between the 17th to 23rd of May, any activity held can be organised as a World Orienteering Day event.

WOD 2022

In May 2022 the sixth World Orienteering Day was organised around the world. Between May 11th and May 17th 615 events was organised in 65 countries / regions. The total number of participants was 85 406.

WOD 2021

The fifth World Orienteering Day took 2021 place both in May and in September during 2021. In May on the 19^thand in September on the 8^th! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the total number of participants was lower than previous years. In total 51 regions / or countries organised 841 events and the total number of participants was 135 971.

WOD 2020

The World Orienteering Day 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was suppose to be arranged on May 13^th,between May 13^th and May 19^th.No activity was registered as World Orienteering Day events during 2020.

WOD 2019

On Wednesday May 15^th 2019, the fourth World Orienteering Day took place. The event was bigger then before, with 398 712 participants all around the world taking part in an orienteering event. Schools, clubs and enthusiast all over the world made a fantastic contribution to orienteering.

WOD 2018

On Wednesday May 23^rd 2018, the third World Orienteering Day took place. It was an even greater success than the previous years, with 358 735 participants all around the world taking part in an orienteering event.

WOD 2017

On Wednesday May 24^th2017, the second World Orienteering Day took place. It was an even greater success than last year, with 288 675 participants all around the world taking part in an orienteering event. This is new record, with 35 000 more participants than last year.

WOD 2016

On Wednesday May 11^th 2016, the first World Orienteering Day was a huge success, with more than 250 000 participants all over the world taking part in an orienteering event. Schools, clubs and enthusiast all over the world made a fantastic contribution and we managed to beat the world record.

Rabbit Tour

The aim of this campaign is to create a “hot topic” among people worldwide and to be part of something bigger! The purpose of the “Rabbit Tour” is to investigate whether this type of activity is feasible in Europe and if it can be developed in 2018 to 3-5 WOD Rabbit Tours worldwide.

Follow the WOD Rabbit