The following is the final results of the 1981 World Wrestling Championships. Freestyle competition were held in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) and Greco-Roman competition were held in Oslo, Norway.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	12	0	4	16
2	West Germany	2	0	0	2
3	Bulgaria	1	5	1	7
4	Yugoslavia	1	2	1	4
5	Japan	1	1	2	4
	United States	1	1	2	4
7	East Germany	1	1	1	3
	Hungary	1	1	1	3
9	Finland	0	2	2	4
	Poland	0	2	2	4
11	Czechoslovakia	0	1	0	1
	Iran	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
	Sweden	0	1	0	1
	Turkey	0	1	0	1
16	Romania	0	0	2	2
17	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Mongolia	0	0	1	1
Totals (18 entries)		20	20	20	60

Rank	Men's freestyle		Men's Greco-Roman
	Team	Points	Team	Points
1	Soviet Union	42	Soviet Union	49
2	Bulgaria	33	Hungary	23
3	United States	28	Finland	21
4	East Germany	17	Bulgaria	18
5	Iran	17	Poland	17
6	Japan	15	Yugoslavia	15

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
48 kg	Sergey Kornilayev  Soviet Union	Son Gab-do  South Korea	William Rosado  United States
52 kg	Toshio Asakura  Japan	Hartmut Reich  East Germany	Nanzadyn Büregdaa  Mongolia
57 kg	Sergey Beloglazov  Soviet Union	Stefan Ivanov  Bulgaria	Hideaki Tomiyama  Japan
62 kg	Simeon Shterev  Bulgaria	Marian Skubacz  Poland	Viktor Alekseev  Soviet Union
68 kg	Saypulla Absaidov  Soviet Union	Šaban Sejdi  Yugoslavia	Kamen Penev  Bulgaria
74 kg	Martin Knosp  West Germany	Valentin Raychev  Bulgaria	Leroy Kemp  United States
82 kg	Chris Campbell  United States	Efraim Kamberov  Bulgaria	Grigory Danko  Soviet Union
90 kg	Sanasar Oganisyan  Soviet Union	Ivan Ginov  Bulgaria	Uwe Neupert  East Germany
100 kg	Roland Gehrke  East Germany	Greg Gibson  United States	Ilya Mate  Soviet Union
+100 kg	Salman Khasimikov  Soviet Union	Reza Soukhtehsaraei  Iran	Adam Sandurski  Poland

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
48 kg	Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov  Soviet Union	Salih Bora  Turkey	Fumikazu Sasaki  Japan
52 kg	Vakhtang Blagidze  Soviet Union	Atsuji Miyahara  Japan	Lajos Rácz  Hungary
57 kg	Pasquale Passarelli  West Germany	Josef Krysta  Czechoslovakia	Ilpo Seppälä  Finland
62 kg	István Tóth  Hungary	Ryszard Świerad  Poland	Pertti Ukkola  Finland
68 kg	Gennady Ermilov  Soviet Union	Tapio Sipilä  Finland	Ștefan Rusu  Romania
74 kg	Aleksandr Kudryavtsev  Soviet Union	Mikko Huhtala  Finland	Karolj Kasap  Yugoslavia
82 kg	Gennady Korban  Soviet Union	Momir Petković  Yugoslavia	Ion Draica  Romania
90 kg	Igor Kanygin  Soviet Union	Frank Andersson  Sweden	Franz Pitschmann  Austria
100 kg	Mikhail Saladze  Soviet Union	Tamás Gáspár  Hungary	Roman Wrocławski  Poland
+100 kg	Refik Memišević  Yugoslavia	Nikola Dinev  Bulgaria	Evgeny Artyukhin  Soviet Union

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