Our roots go as far back as the 1920’s, when a series of international meetings between liberal youth organisations took place. However, we were first officially established at a meeting in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1947 under the name of the World Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (WFLRY).

WFLRY was the first international liberal youth platform, though in reality it was almost completely European at this time, but it was not long before it had a competitor in the form of the European Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (EFLRY), who were founded in 1969.

Eventually it became clear that two organisations serving the same purpose were not necessary and so in 1978 WFLRY closed down and, at a meeting in Silkeborg, Denmark in 1979, the remaining EFLRY became the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY).

It was at this point that the Federation started to become more truly global, with expansions across Latin America and Africa and, after 1989, out to Central and Eastern Europe as well as Asia. Today IFLRY is proud to be present in all continents of the world.