Year the National Rugby unions were founded:
Note:
The dates shown below are typically for the existing National unions but in some cases earlier attempts to form a national union occured and some of these are also included in the list.
- 1871 (English) Rugby Football Union (RFU)
- 1873 Scottish Rugby Union (as Scottish Football Union until 1924)
- 1874 Southern (Australian) Rugby Union (later New South Wales Rugby Union)
- 1879 Irish Rugby Football Union (a merger of two Irish unions both formed in 1874)
- 1880 Welsh Rugby Union
- 1883 Northern (Australian) Rugby Union (later Queensland Rugby Union)
- 1889 South African Rugby Board
- 1892 New Zealand Rugby Football Union
- 1895 Northern Rugby Football Union
- 1895 Rhodesia Rugby Football Union (Zimbabwe RFU after 1980)
- 1899 Argentine Rugby Union
- 1900 German Rugby Union
- 1908 Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (as Ceylon Rugby Football Union)
- 1913 Fijian Rugby Union
- 1916 Royal Moroccan Rugby Federation
- 1919 French Rugby Federation
- 1921 Malaysian Rugby Union (As Malaya Rugby Union)
- 1922 Catalan Rugby Federation
- 1923 Kenya Rugby Union
- 1923 Spanish Rugby Federation
- 1923 Tongan Rugby Football Union
- 1924 Samoan Rugby Football Union
- 1926 Czech Rugby Union
- 1926 Japanese Rugby Football Union
- 1926 Portuguese Rugby Union
- 1928 Italian Rugby Federation
- 1928 Trinidad and Tobago
- 1929 The original Rugby Union of Canada was founded in September, 1929, and lasted until the outbreak of the War in 1939. It was not revived until 1965 as the Canadian Rugby Union.
- 1931 Romanian Rugby Federation
- 1932 Netherlands Rugby Union
- 1932 Swedish Rugby Union
- 1934 Belgium Rugby Union
- 1935 Chile Rugby Union
- 1936 Russia Rugby Union
- 1938 Thailand Rugby Union
- 1945 Korea Rugby Union
- 1946 Jamaica Rugby Union
- 1948 Singapore Rugby Union
- 1949 Australian Rugby Union
- 1950 Denmark Rugby Union
- 1951 Uruguay Rugby Union
- 1952 Niue Rugby Union
- 1953 Hong Kong Rugby Union
- 1953 Federación de Rugby de Chile
- 1955 Uganda Rugby Union
- 1957 Polish Rugby Union
- 1961 Cote d'Ivoire Rugby Federation
- 1961 Georgian Rugby Union (as regional body under USSR - full nation body in 1990s)
- 1961 Lithuanian Rugby Federation (as regional body under USSR - full nation body in 1990s)
- 1965 Rugby Canada (founded as Canadian Rugby Union)
- 1965 Zambia Rugby Union
- 1968 Indian Rugby Football Union
- 1970 Paraguayan Rugby Union
- 1972 Switzerland Rugby Union
- 1972 Brazilian Rugby Association
- 1972 Tunisian Rugby Federation
- 1974 Luxembourg Rugby Union
- 1974 Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (founded as Gulf Rugby Football Union) — then an overseas member of the Rugby Football Union; became independent in 1990. Officially disbanded in 2011; to be replaced with separate national unions in each of its former member countries. The new United Arab Emirates union was founded shortly before the AGRFU dissolution.
- 1975 USA Rugby (founded as United States of America Rugby Football Union)
- 1977 Brunei Rugby Football Union
- 1982 Norwegian Rugby Union
- 1984 Arabian Gulf Rugby Union
- 1986 Andorran Rugby Federation
- 1989 Cook Islands Rugby Union
- 1990 Namibian Rugby Union
- 1990 Hungary Rugby Union
- 1992 Austrian Rugby Federation
- 1992 South African Rugby Football Union (a merger of the white South African Rugby Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union)
- 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina
- 1996 Monaco Rugby Union
- 1997 Guam Rugby Union
- 1997 Peruvian Rugby Federation
- 1998 St Vincent and the Grenadines
- 1998 Philippine Rugby Football Union
- 2000 Pakistan Rugby Union
- 2004 Azerbaijani Rugby Federation
- 2008 Ecuadorian Rugby Federation
- 2007 Jordan Rugby Union.
- 2009 Turkey Rugby Federation
- 2010 United Arab Emirates Rugby Association (not yet a full IRB member)
World Rankings (external link - IRB.com)
RSS feed for rankings (external link)