The 1978 World Modern Pentathlon Championships were held in Jönköping, Sweden.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual	Pavel Lednev (URS)	Janusz Pyciak-Peciak (POL)	Neil Glenesk (USA)
Team	Poland Janusz Pyciak-Peciak Slawomir Rotkiewicz Zbigniew Pacelt	West Germany Norbert Kühn Axel Starmann Gerhard Werner	Soviet Union Pavel Lednev Oleg Bulgakov Aleksandr Tarev

Women's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual	Wendy Norman (GBR)	Wendy Skipworth (GBR)	Nancy Absolon (CAN)
Team	Great Britain	United States	West Germany

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain (GBR)	2	1	0	3
2	Poland (POL)	1	1	0	2
3	Soviet Union (URS)	1	0	1	2
4	United States (USA)	0	1	1	2
	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	1	2
6	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 entries)		4	4	4	12