The Rugby World Cup host nation for both men and women is selected by World Rugby at a meeting six years before each tournament. Each of the Men's Rugby World Cups from 1987 to 2015 were hosted by countries that are considered the traditional powers in World Rugby. The first non Rugby Championship or Six Nations country to host a Rugby World Cup was Japan in 2019, after failed bids for the 2011 (awarded to New Zealand) and 2015 (awarded to England) tournaments. The women's version of the Rugby World Cup, which is known as the Women's Rugby World Cup, was first held in 1991, alternating with even-numbered non-leap years from 1994 to 2014 before switching to odd-numbered years from 2017 onwards.^{[citation needed]}

World Rugby requires a country to possess the necessary facilities to host a Rugby World Cup. Stadiums must have a capacity at least 15,000, with the stadium for the final having a capacity of at least 60,000. The stadiums have other requirements, such as pitch size and floodlighting.

World Rugby also looks for hosts that will either generate significant revenue or hosts that will spread the geographic reach of the sport. According to World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset in 2008: "As the revenue generation is vital to our ongoing development plans, we recognise that the World Cup has to be held in one of our senior core markets on a regular basis . . . However, the commercial success of the tournament also means we can now consider placing the tournament in new developing markets to assist the game's strategic growth."

World Rugby also tends to rotate continents, with no continent to date hosting two consecutive World Cups.

The first Men's Rugby World Cup was hosted by Australia and New Zealand after the Australian Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Union each independently wrote to the International Rugby Board seeking to conduct a World Cup tournament. The final was played in Auckland, New Zealand, at Eden Park and won by New Zealand.

The first Women's Rugby World Cup was hosted by Wales and there were 12 nations. The final was played in Cardiff, Wales at Cardiff Arms Park and won by the United States.

Shortly after the inaugural Women's Rugby World Cup was held, the 1991 Rugby World Cup was jointly hosted by the Five Nations Championship countries (England, Ireland, Wales, France and Scotland), with games played all over these five European nations. Pool A, in which England played, saw half of the matches played in London, though games were also in Leicester, Gloucester and Otley. Pool B games involved European nations Scotland and Ireland, which had all their games in either Dublin or Edinburgh; one game was played in Belfast. Pool C included Wales, whose games were all played in Cardiff, with the other games in Pontypool, Pontypridd, and Llanelli. Pool D, of which France were a part, saw games played in Agen, Bayonne, Béziers Brive, Grenoble, and Toulouse. None of the quarter-finals or semi-finals was played in England. The final was played at the Rugby Football Union's Twickenham.

Originally scheduled to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands but cancelled only weeks before, the second Women's Rugby World Cup was hosted by Scotland and once again, there were 12 nations. The final was played in Edinburgh, Scotland at Raeburn Place where England became the first British women's rugby union team to win the Women's Rugby World Cup.