History
The Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) held the first men's world basketball championship in 1950 and the first women's championship in 1953.
Tournaments have been held at various intervals, but they're now staged every four years, in the even-numbered year between Olympics Games.
Sixteen countries take part. The host country automatically qualifies. The other 15 entries emerge from qualifying tournaments in the FIBA's five zones: Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.
The number of teams qualifying varies from zone to zone, but each zone is represented by at least one country.