1956 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship

The 1956 FIVB Women's World Championship was the second edition of the tournament, contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. It was held from 30 August to 12 September 1956 in France.

Teams

 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (host)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
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 * (reigning champion)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (reigning champion)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)

Squads
Source:

Format
The tournament was played in two different stages (first and final rounds). In the, the 17 participants were divided in five groups (two groups of four teams and three groups of three teams). A single round-robin format was played within each group to determine the teams group position, all teams progressed to the next round.

In the, two groups were created (1st-10th and 11th-17th), teams were allocated to a group according to their group position (best two teams of each group going to 1st-10th and the remaining teams to 11th-17th). A single round-robin format was played within each group with matches already played between teams in the also counted in this round.

Final round
The results and the points of the matches between the same teams that were already played during the first round are taken into account for the final round.