The following table shows the world record progression in the Women's 3,000 metres. The first record officially recognised by the IAAF was set on 6 July 1974 by Lyudmila Bragina from the Soviet Union.

As of June 21, 2009, the IAAF has ratified nine world records in the event.^[1]

Time	Athlete	Date	Place
14:44.4	Ana Cicanei (ROM)	1927	—
10:56.0	Phyllis Perkins (GBR)	1954-05-22	London, United Kingdom
10:55.2	Phyllis Perkins (GBR)	1955-06-25	London, United Kingdom
10:25.8	Leila Buckland (GBR)	1955-08-27	London, United Kingdom
10:16.2	June Bridgland (GBR)	1956-08-25	London, United Kingdom
10:16.0	Phyllis Perkins (GBR)	1956-10-27	London, United Kingdom
9:44.0	Roberta Picco (CAN)	1966-07-23	Don Mills, Canada
9:42.8	Paola Pigni (ITA)	1969-05-11	Formia, Italy
9:38.0	Paola Pigni (ITA)	1969-09-02	Milan, Italy
9:26.9	Doris Brown (USA)	1971-07-10	Bakersfield, United States
9:23.4	Joyce Smith (GBR)	1971-07-16	London, United Kingdom
9:09.2	Paola Pigni (ITA)	1972-05-11	Formia, Italy
8:53.0	Lyudmila Bragina (URS)	1972-08-12	Moscow, Soviet Union

Time	Athlete	Date	Place
8:52.8*	Lyudmila Bragina (URS)	1974-07-06[1]	Durham, United States
8:46.6	Grete Andersen-Waitz (NOR)	1975-06-24[1]	Oslo, Norway
8:45.4	Grete Waitz (NOR)	1976-06-21[1]	Oslo, Norway
8:27.2*	Lyudmila Bragina (URS)	1976-08-07[1]	College Park, United States
8:26.78	Svetlana Ulmasova (URS)	1982-07-25[1]	Kiev, Soviet Union
8:22.62	Tatyana Kazankina (URS)	1984-08-26[1]	Leningrad, Soviet Union
8:22.06	Zhang Linli (CHN)	1993-09-12[1]	Beijing, PR China
8:12.19	Wang Junxia (CHN)	1993-09-12[1]	Beijing, PR China
8:06.11	Wang Junxia (CHN)	1993-09-13[1]	Beijing, PR China

* - indicates ratified time. Auto times for Bragina's 8:52.8 and 8:27.2 were 8:52.74 and 8:27.12 respectively.

• World record progression for the Men's 3,000 m
• Long-distance track event

• ARRS
• Statistics (Internet Archive)