The very first Canoe Slalom World Championships were held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1949. Canoe slalom originated in Switzerland in 1933 as a summer alternative to slalom skiing, and was initially competed on a flatwater course.

The World Championships were held every two years up until 1999, when there was a three-year gap to the 2002 titles. The next world championships were held the following year, but then there was another two-year gap to the 2005 titles in Penrith, Australia.

Since 2005 the World Championships have been held every non-Olympic year. The World Championship program has undergone several changes since 1949, with new events added, exisiting events modified, and some events deleted.

France (53) has won the most world titles in canoe slalom, but combining Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic (58) and Czechoslovakia/Slovakia (55) would both exceed that total. Slovakia's Michal Martikán and US paddler Jon Lugbill (both 12) have won the most world titles in the discipline, while the leading female is Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (8) of France. A paddler representing Africa has never finished in the top-three at the world championships, but in 2008 in Beijing, Benjamin Boukpeti claimed Togo’s first medal in any sport at the Olympic Games when he took bronze in the K1M.