2004 IIHF Women's World Championship

The 2004 IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 30 – April 6, 2004 in Halifax and Dartmouth, Canada at the Halifax Metro Centre (now known as Scotiabank Centre), and the Dartmouth Sportsplex (now known as Zatzman Sportsplex). The Canadian national women's hockey team won their eighth straight World Championships. The event had 9 teams, because the 2003 event was cancelled due to the SARS epidemic, therefore no teams were relegated and the winners of the 2002 and 2003 Division I tournaments qualified. Canada won their 37th consecutive World Championship game before losing 3–1 in their third game. They later avenged their loss to the US by defeating them in the gold medal game 2–1. Sweden and Finland also met each other twice, with Finland winning the bronze medal game 3–2 improving on the earlier draw.

In addition to being the qualifications for the 2005 world tournaments, this year also finalized the qualification for the Torino Olympics.

Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)

Directorate Awards

 * Goaltender: 🇨🇦 Kim St. Pierre
 * Defenceman: 🇺🇸 Angela Ruggiero
 * Forward: 🇨🇦 Jayna Hefford
 * Most Valuable Player: 🇨🇦 Jennifer Botterill

All-Star team

 * Goaltender: 🇺🇸 Pam Dreyer
 * Defencemen: 🇸🇪 Gunilla Andersson, 🇺🇸 Angela Ruggiero
 * Forwards: 🇨🇦 Jennifer Botterill, 🇺🇸 Natalie Darwitz, 🇨🇦 Jayna Hefford

Division I
The Division I IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 14–20, 2004 in Ventspils, Latvia

 is promoted to the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships, and  are demoted to Division II

Directorate Awards
Source: Passionhockey.com
 * Goalie: Yelena Kuznetsova, (Kazakhstan)
 * Defender: Olga Konysheva, (Kazakhstan)
 * Forward: Iveta Koka, (Latvia)

Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)

Division II
The Division II IIHF World Women's Championships will be held March 14–20, 2004 in Sterzing, Italy

 is promoted to Division I while and  are demoted to Division III in the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships

Directorate Awards
Source: Passionhockey.com
 * Goalie: 🇸🇰 Zuzana Tomčíková
 * Defender: 🇸🇰 Jana Kapustová
 * Forward: 🇮🇹 Maria Leitner

Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)

Division III
The Division III IIHF Women World Championships were held March 21–28, 2004 in Maribor, Slovenia.

 was promoted to Division II at the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships, while both and  were relegated to the newly formed Division IV.

Directorate Awards
Source: Passionhockey.com
 * Goalie: Nina Geyer, (Austria)
 * Defender: Kerstin Oberhuber, (Austria)
 * Forward: Jasmina Rosar, (Slovenia)