The IX World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships were held in London, Great Britain on 4 and 5 July 1979.
In the group competition, groups performed their routine with six hoops twice in the qualification round; in both cases, they were scored on both composition and execution. For groups that made the final, their finals performance was judged on execution only. The qualification scores were divided in half and added to the scores from the finals to determine the final ranking.