The 1981 European Aquatics Championships were held in an indoor pool (50 m) in Split, Yugoslavia from 5 September to 12 September 1981. Besides swimming there were titles contested in diving, synchronized swimming (women) and water polo (men).

  *   Host nation (Yugoslavia)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany	15	11	3	29
2	Soviet Union	13	11	8	32
3	Great Britain	3	2	3	8
4	West Germany	2	2	4	8
5	Hungary	2	0	1	3
6	Sweden	1	4	2	7
7	Yugoslavia*	1	1	1	3
8	Netherlands	0	3	4	7
9	Poland	0	1	3	4
10	Austria	0	1	2	3
11	Italy	0	1	1	2
12	Czechoslovakia	0	0	1	1
	France	0	0	1	1
	Romania	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		37	37	37	111

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 m freestyle	Per Johansson (SWE)	Jörg Woithe (GDR)	Sergey Krasyuk (URS)
200 m freestyle	Sergey Kopliakov (URS)	Michael Söderlund (SWE)	Thomas Lejdström (SWE)
400 m freestyle	Borut Petrič (YUG)	Vladimir Salnikov (URS)	Darjan Petrič (YUG)
1500 m freestyle	Vladimir Salnikov (URS)	Borut Petrič (YUG)	Rafael Escalas (ESP)
100 m backstroke	Sándor Wladár (HUN)	Vladimir Shemetov (URS)	Viktor Kuznetsov (URS)
200 m backstroke	Sándor Wladár (HUN)	Vladimir Shemetov (URS)	Frédéric Delcourt (FRA)
100 m breaststroke	Yuriy Kis (URS)	Arsens Miskarovs (URS)	Gerald Mörken (FRG)
200 m breaststroke	Robertas Žulpa (URS)	Arsens Miskarovs (URS)	Adrian Moorhouse (GBR)
100 m butterfly	Aleksey Markovsky (URS)	Pär Arvidsson (SWE)	Vadim Dombrovskiy (URS)
200 m butterfly	Michael Groß (FRG)	Phil Hubble (GBR)	Sergey Fesenko (URS)
200 m individual medley	Aleksandr Sidorenko (URS)	Giovanni Franceschi (ITA)	Josef Hladký (TCH)
400 m individual medley	Sergey Fesenko (URS)	Leszek Górski (POL)	Giovanni Franceschi (ITA)
4×100 m freestyle relay	Soviet Union Vladimir Shemetov Vladimir Salnikov Aleksandr Chaev Sergey Kopliakov	Sweden Per Holmertz Per Wikström Lasse Lindqvist Per Johansson	West Germany Peter Knust Wilfried Kuhlem Michael Groß Andreas Schmidt
4×200 m freestyle relay	Soviet Union Vladimir Shemetov Vladimir Salnikov Aleksandr Chaev Sergey Kopliakov	West Germany Michael Groß Gerald Schlupp Andreas Schmidt Frank Wennmann	Sweden Michael Söderlund Per Wikström Per-Alvar Magnusson Thomas Lejdström
4×100 m medley relay	Soviet Union Viktor Kuznetsov Yuriy Kis Aleksey Markovsky Sergey Krasyuk	Sweden Bengt Baron Glen Christiansen Pär Arvidsson Per Johansson	East Germany Dirk Richter Sigurd Hanke Olaf Ziesche Jörg Woithe

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 m freestyle	Caren Metschuck (GDR)	Birgit Meineke (GDR)	Conny van Bentum (NED)
200 m freestyle	Carmela Schmidt (GDR)	Birgit Meineke (GDR)	Conny van Bentum (NED)
400 m freestyle	Ines Diers (GDR)	Carmela Schmidt (GDR)	Jackie Wilmott (GBR)
800 m freestyle	Carmela Schmidt (GDR)	Ines Diers (GDR)	Jackie Wilmott (GBR)
100 m backstroke	Ina Kleber (GDR)	Cornelia Polit (GDR)	Carmen Bunaciu (ROU)
200 m backstroke	Cornelia Polit (GDR)	Jolanda de Rover (NED)	Larisa Gorchakova (URS)
100 m breaststroke	Ute Geweniger (GDR)	Suki Brownsdon (GBR)	Larisa Belokon (URS)
200 m breaststroke	Ute Geweniger (GDR)	Larisa Belokon (URS)	Grażyna Dziedzic (POL)
100 m butterfly	Ute Geweniger (GDR)	Ines Geißler (GDR)	Karin Seick (FRG)
200 m butterfly	Ines Geißler (GDR)	Heike Dähne (GDR)	Agnieszka Czopek (POL)
200 m individual medley	Ute Geweniger (GDR)	Petra Schneider (GDR)	Olga Klevakina (URS)
400 m individual medley	Petra Schneider (GDR)	Ute Geweniger (GDR)	Agnieszka Czopek (POL)
4×100 m freestyle relay	East Germany Birgit Meineke Caren Metschuck Ines Diers Susanne Link	West Germany Marion Aizpors Karin Seick Ute Neubert Susanne Schuster	Netherlands Annemarie Verstappen Monique Drost Wilma van Velsen Conny van Bentum
4×100 m medley relay	East Germany Ina Kleber Ute Geweniger Ines Geißler Caren Metschuck	Soviet Union Larisa Gorchakova Larisa Belokon Natalia Pokas Natalya Strunnikova	West Germany Ute Neubert Andrea Schönborn Karin Seick Marion Aizpors

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
3 m springboard	Aleksandr Portnov (URS)	Sergei Kuzmin (URS)	Niki Stajković (AUT)
10 m platform	David Ambartsumyan (URS)	Vladimir Aleynik (URS)	Dieter Waskow (GDR)

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
3 m springboard	Zhanna Tsirulnikova (URS)	Martina Jäschke (GDR)	Irina Kalinina (URS)
10 m platform	Katarina Zipperling (GDR)	Tatyana Belyakova (URS)	Martina Jäschke (GDR)

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Solo	Carolyn Wilson (GBR)	Alexandra Worisch (AUT)	Marijke Engelen (NED)
Duet	Caroline Holmyard (GBR)  Carolyn Wilson (GBR)	Catrien Eijken (NED)  Marijke Engelen (NED)	Eva-Maria Edinger (AUT)  Alexandra Worisch (AUT)
Team competition	Great Britain (GBR) Tracy Cook Louise Corkhilld Amanda Dodd Deborah Golding Caroline Holmyard Sheila Kenton Philippa Sutton Carolyn Wilson	Netherlands (NED) Catrien Eijken Marijke Engelen Marleen Engelen Petri Engels Judith van de Berg Maria van den Broek Liesbeth van Hoorn Ilse Westbroe	Switzerland (SUI) Cornelia Blank Edith Boss Ines Gerber Silvia Grossenbacher Maya Mast Irene Singer Karin Singer Caroline Sturzenegger

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team competition	West Germany	Soviet Union	Hungary

• "European Swimming Championships (Men)". gbrathletics.com. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
• "European Swimming Championships (Women)". gbrathletics.com. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
• "Swimming European Championship 1981 Split (CRO)". todor66.com. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
• "LEN European Championships Aquatic finalists" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2020.