The Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH)

International Hockey Federation

The International Field Hockey Federation is the global governing body of field hockey...

. The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer Olympics

Field hockey at the Summer Olympics

Field hockey was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition at the 1908 Games in London, with six teams, including four from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....

.

There is also a Women's Hockey World Cup

Women's Hockey World Cup

The Women's Hockey World Cup is the field hockey World Cup competition for women, whose format for qualification and final tournament is similar to the men's. It has been held since 1974. The tournament has been organised by the International Hockey Federation since they merged with the...

, which has been held since 1974 and was organised by the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA) until 1981, when the governing bodies merged into the current International Hockey Federation in 1982.

Five countries have dominated the event's history.