Jose Sanchez
Research expert covering society, economy, & politics for Latin America
Handball - statistics & facts
Handball-like games have been played for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. While the game as we know it today was formalized in Germany and Scandinavia in the twentieth century, comparable sports have long been practiced across the world, from Ancient Egypt to Ireland in the Middle Ages. Today, the game is a globally-popular professional sport, with the event revenue of the International Handball Federation (IHF) amounting to approximately 35 million euros in 2023. The highest-paid handball players themselves can also earn millions, with France’s Luka Karabatić earning a reported 1.5 million euros per year. However, handball is not just for players at elite clubs: IHF figures on global handball participation revealed that an estimated 30 million people play the sport worldwide, in nearly 130,000 teams.
Which countries are the best at handball?
Handball is played at international level in a number of top competitions. In terms of the countries with the most Olympic gold medals for handball, Denmark leads the way, with a total of five. The Danes have also won the second-most IHF World Men’s Handball Championship titles, winning four consecutive titles between 2019 and 2024. Meanwhile, other countries have had success in different areas, with Egypt leading the Wheelchair Handball World Championship medal table after winning gold in 2024.Which countries have the strongest handball clubs?
In the European Handball Federation’s (EHF) ranking of the leading women’s handball leagues in Europe, Denmark's Kvindeligaen and Germany's Handball-Bundesliga ranked highest, with four clubs from each league being allowed to enter the EHF European League in 2025/26. Meanwhile, the handball division of FC Barcelona has won the most men’s EHF Champions League titles, with a total of 11. By comparison, the team with the second-most titles, THW Kiel, has won four. It is perhaps unsurprising then that in the men’s EHF Champions League all-time table, Barcelona ranks first.
