The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships took place between 28 July – 29 July. Both the heats and semifinals were held on 28 July with the heats being held in the morning session and the semifinals being held in the evening session. The final was held on 29 July.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

	Name	Nationality	Time	Location	Date
World record	Aaron Peirsol Aaron Peirsol Aaron Wells Peirsol is a former American swimmer who specialized in the backstroke. He is a three-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic medalist . As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1:54.74	Long Beach Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...	12 July 2004
Championship record	Aaron Peirsol Aaron Peirsol Aaron Wells Peirsol is a former American swimmer who specialized in the backstroke. He is a three-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic medalist . As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1:55.82	Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...	24 July 2003

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	WR	CR
July 29	Final	Aaron Peirsol Aaron Peirsol Aaron Wells Peirsol is a former American swimmer who specialized in the backstroke. He is a three-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic medalist . As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1:54.66	WR	CR

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Aaron Peirsol Aaron Peirsol Aaron Wells Peirsol is a former American swimmer who specialized in the backstroke. He is a three-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic medalist . As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay...		1:54.66	WR
	Markus Rogan Markus Rogan Markus Antonius Rogan is an Austrian swimmer, who won two silver medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and a gold medal for 200 m backstroke at the 2008 World Championships in Manchester...		1:56.63
	Ryan Lochte Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte is an American swimmer and a six-time Olympic medalist . As part of the American team, he holds the world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay...		1:57.00
4	Răzvan Florea Razvan Florea Răzvan Florea is a former Olympic and national record setting backstroke swimmer from Romania. He was the first Romanian male to win an Olympic medal in Swimming when he won the bronze medal in the 200 backstroke at the 2004 Olympics...		1:57.03
5	Takashl Nakano		1:58.03
6	Gordan Kožulj Gordan Kožulj Gordan Kožulj is a former backstroke swimmer from Croatia, who competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1996....		1:58.28
7	Arkady Vvatchanin		1:59.02
8	Tomoml Morita		1:59.34

Key: WR = World record