IIHF World Ranking

The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the performance of the national ice hockey teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is based on a formula giving points for each team's placings at IIHF-sanctioned tournaments over the previous four years. The ranking is used to determine seedings and qualification requirements for future IIHF tournaments. The current leader in rankings is Canada in both men's and women's play.

Top 20 rankings as of May 2024^[1]

Men's Rank Change* Team Points 1  Canada 4100 2 1  Russia 4065 3 1  Finland 3955 4 4  Czech Republic 3945 5 2   Switzerland 3945 6 2  United States 3945 7 1  Sweden 3910 8 3  Germany 3865 9  Slovakia 3750 10  Latvia 3660 11  Denmark 3500 12  Norway 3380 13 3  Austria 3340 14 1  France 3325 15  Kazakhstan 3305 16 2  Belarus 3245 17 3  Great Britain 3095 18 1  Hungary 3090 19 2  Slovenia 3090 20 2  Italy 3025

Women's Rank Change* Team Points 1  Canada 4270 2  United States 4210 3 1  Finland 3975 4 1  Czech Republic 3965 5 2   Switzerland 3960 6  Russia 3880 7  Japan 3775 8  Sweden 3750 9  Germany 3650 10  Hungary 3520 11  Denmark 3490 12 2  China 3425 13 1  France 3415 14 1  Norway 3340 15 2  Austria 3315 16  Slovakia 3175 17  Netherlands 3170 18 1  South Korea 3080 19 1  Italy 3025 20  Poland 2955

Description

The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2003.^[2] According to former IIHF President René Fasel, the system was designed to be simple to understand and "reflect the long-term quality of all national hockey programs and their commitment to international hockey".^[3]

The ranking is used to determine the seeding of the teams for the next World Championship and to select the teams which can participate in Winter Olympics without playing in the qualifying round. For example, for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the first eight teams of the Men's World Ranking and the first six of the Women's World Ranking were pre-qualified. Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics was structured around the 2019 ranking. Twelve spots were made available for teams. The top eight teams in the World Ranking after the 2019 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships received automatic berths into the Ice Hockey event. All IIHF teams had an opportunity to qualify for the event. Teams that wished to participate ranked below 36th played in two preliminary qualifications in November 2019. The two winners of the first preliminaries and teams ranked 27–36th were divided in three groups to play in the second pre-qualification round in December 2019. The three winners of those preliminaries joined teams ranked 18–26th for the third pre-qualification round of three groups in February 2020. The winner of each of these pre-qualification groups and teams ranked 9–17 were divided in three groups to play in the final qualification in August 2021. The winner of each group then joined the eight top-ranked teams plus the host in the Olympics in 2022.

The women's tournament uses a similar qualification format. The top six teams in the IIHF Women's World Ranking after the 2020 IIHF Women's World Championship received automatic berths into the ice hockey event. Lower ranked teams had an opportunity to qualify for the event. Teams ranked 16th and below were divided into three groups where they played in a preliminary qualification round in the October 2021. The three group winners from the round advanced to the final qualification round, where the teams ranked seventh through fifteenth joined them.^[4]

Formula

The world ranking is based on the final positions of the last four Men's or Women's IIHF World Championships and last Olympic ice hockey tournament. Points are assigned according to a team's final placement in the World Championship or the Olympic tournament. The world champion receives 1600 points and then a 20-point interval is used between teams. However, a 40-point interval is used between gold and silver, silver and bronze, fourth and fifth, and eighth and ninth. This is used as a bonus for the teams who reach the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the final and for winning the gold medal.^[1] Prior to 2023, the world champion received 1200 points, with other teams receiving the same point interval decreases.

Place	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	...
Points	1600	1560	1520	1500	1460	1440	1420	1400	1360	1340	1320	1300	1280	1260	1240	1220	1200	1180	1160	1140	...

Points awarded in the current year are valued at the full amount. Points award in the prior years decline linearly by 25% until the fifth year when they are dropped from the calculation. Under this formula, any year with a World Championship and an Olympics will be counted twice in the tables^[a], for a maximum ranking (gold medal in all five events) of: 5600 points at the completion of an Olympic year, 5200 points at the completion of the following year, 4800 points the next year, and 4400 points in the year before the next Olympics. For example, if after the 2026 Championship a team had won the gold medal in the last four championships and the last Olympic tournament, their score would be 5600:^[b]

Competition	Valuation coefficient	Points
2026 IIHF World Championship	100%	1600
2026 Winter Olympics	100%	1600
2025 IIHF World Championship	75%	1200
2024 IIHF World Championship	50%	800
2023 IIHF World Championship	25%	400
2022 IIHF World Championship	0%	0
2022 Winter Olympics	0%	0
Counts Five Tournaments from Four Latest Years		5600

1. From April 2014 to August 2022, Women's rankings counted Olympics points twice, to be on same formula as Men's rankings, as no Women's top division World Championship was held in Olympic years. This changed with the Women's top division starting to be held in Olympic years in 2022.
2. Due to the point value change from 2023, tournaments from 2020-2022 will still use the 1200 point values in the formula.

Men's rankings

See also: List of IIHF World Rankings

The Men's 2025 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022, and at the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament of 2022.

All tournaments in 2020 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, teams were awarded points based on their seeding for their respective tournaments. The Championship division received points based on the 2019 World Ranking, while the remaining divisions received points based on the previous year's results. For a fairer ranking and point distribution, the IIHF Council decided that the points for 2021 in case of tournament cancellations are given according to the ranking position of each team in the 2021 Pre-Championship Report – taking into consideration the results in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – rather than by seeding as in the past.^[5]

For the 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia was still under a 2019 ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) because of that country's state-sponsored doping scheme.^[6] On 19 February 2021, the International Olympic Committee announced that individual athletes from Russia, who had consistently passed ongoing anti-doping tests, could compete under the acronym "ROC" (the full name "Russian Olympic Committee" could not be displayed), and that the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee would be used for the COVID-19 pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics and the unchanged 2022 Winter Olympics.^[7]

Russia and Belarus were expelled from competing in all World Championships since 2022 because of their invasion of Ukraine. They were, however, granted the points of the positions they would have been seeded based on their 2021 ranking: in 2022, Russia in third place received 1120 points, and Belarus in 14th place received 860 points. Several nations withdrew from the 2022 World Championships over COVID-19 concerns. These nations similarly received the points of the positions they would have been seeded within their respective tournaments: Australia as second place in IIA received 560 points, New Zealand as third place in IIB received 440 points, North Korea as first place in IIIA received 360 points, Hong Kong as second place in IIIB received 220 points, and the Philippines as fourth place in IV received 100 points. ^[8]

The following table lists the full breakdown of ranking following the 2024 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships^[9] and the calculations of the rankings during the 2025 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships. Scores in italics represent minimum possible scores for unfinished tournaments. All tournament's points have their full value displayed, while the ranking is calculated by adding the current year's tournament points to the depreciated previous three years' tournament points as explained above. The depreciated percentages are shown in the column headings, first for the current total, then for the new total. The "Total" columns are the sums of the current tournament points and the depreciated values for past tournaments. The "+/–" columns indicate the increase or decrease in ranking since the last tournament. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.

2025 Rank	2024 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2025)	WC2025 (—) (100%)	WC2024 (100%) (75%)	WC2023 (75%) (50%)	WC2022 (50%) (25%)	OLY2022 (50%) (25%)	WC2021 (25%) (0%)	2025 Total	+/−	2024 Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	1220	1500	1600	1160	1040	1200	3695		4100
2	2	Russia	Expelled	1220	1520	1520	1120	1160	1060	3690		4065	1
3	4	Czech Republic	Championship	1220	1600	1400	1120	960	1020	3640	1	3945	4
4	5	Switzerland	Championship	1220	1560	1460	1060	1000	1040	3635		3945	2
5	7	Sweden	Championship	1220	1520	1440	1040	1100	960	3615	2	3910	1
6	6	United States	Championship	1220	1460	1500	1100	1060	1120	3605		3945	2
7	3	Finland	Championship	1220	1400	1420	1200	1200	1160	3580	4	3955	1
8	8	Germany	Championship	1220	1440	1560	1020	940	1100	3570		3865	3
9	9	Slovakia	Championship	1220	1420	1360	1000	1120	1000	3495		3750
10	10	Latvia	Championship	1220	1360	1520	940	920	920	3465		3660
11	11	Denmark	Championship	1220	1280	1340	960	1020	900	3345		3500
12	12	Norway	Championship	1220	1320	1280	880	880	880	3290		3380
13	13	Austria	Championship	1220	1340	1260	920	800	780	3285		3340	3
14	14	France	Championship	1220	1260	1300	900	860	840	3255		3325	1
15	15	Kazakhstan	Championship	1220	1300	1320	860	700	940	3245		3305
16	16	Belarus	Expelled	1220	1240	1260	860	840	840	3205		3245	2
17	18	Hungary	Championship	1220	1200	1240	780	780	720	3130	1	3090	1
18	19	Slovenia	Championship	1220	1180	1220	800	820	740	3120	1	3090	2
19	17	Great Britain	Division I A	1100	1240	1200	820	660	860	3000	2	3095	3
20	21	Poland	Division I A	1100	1220	1180	700	760	700	2970	1	3010	1
21	20	Italy	Division I A	1100	1160	1160	840	740	820	2945	1	3025	2
22	23	Romania	Division I A	1100	1140	1120	720	640	660	2855	1	2825
23	24	Japan	Division I A	1100	1120	1080	680	680	640	2820	1	2770	1
24	27	Ukraine	Division I A	1100	1080	1060	660	620	600	2760	3	2665
25	22	South Korea	Division I B	980	1100	1140	740	720	760	2740	3	2875	1
26	25	Lithuania	Division I B	980	1060	1100	760	600	680	2665	1	2735	1
27	26	China	Division I B	980	1020	1040	600	900	500	2640	1	2675
28	28	Estonia	Division I B	980	1040	1020	640	580	620	2575		2570
29	30	Spain	Division I B	980	1000	960	540	520	520	2475	1	2380	2
30	32	Croatia	Division I B	980	960	940	560	540	540	2445	2	2350	1
31	29	Netherlands	Division II A	860	980	1000	580	560	580	2380	2	2445
32	31	Serbia	Division II A	860	940	980	620	500	560	2335	1	2375	1
33	33	Israel	Division II A	860	900	900	520	420	460	2220		2160
34	36	United Arab Emirates	Division II A	860	920	840	360	320	200	2140	2	1940	3
35	35	Australia	Division II A	860	880	920	560	—	480	2120		1970
36	34	Iceland	Division II B	740	860	880	480	480	440	2065	2	2110
37	39	Belgium	Division II A	860	840	820	440	—	420	2010	2	1780	1
38	37	Bulgaria	Division II B	740	780	800	420	380	340	1925	1	1865	1
39	41	New Zealand	Division II B	740	820	780	440	—	360	1855	2	1715	1
40	40	Chinese Taipei	Division II B	740	760	720	300	440	240	1855		1730	1
41	38	Turkey	Division III A	620	740	760	340	460	300	1755	3	1785
42	43	Thailand	Division II B	740	720	660	220	340	140	1750	1	1530	1
43	44	Luxembourg	Division III A	620	680	640	280	300	280	1595	1	1520	1
44	45	Kyrgyzstan	Division III A	620	700	600	160	400	100	1585	1	1455	1
45	46	Turkmenistan	Division III A	620	660	700	320	—	260	1545	1	1410	1
46	42	Mexico	Division III B	500	620	740	400	360	400	1525	4	1655	5
47	47	South Africa	Division III A	620	640	680	240	—	220	1500		1325	2
48	48	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III A	620	600	580	200	260	160	1475		1305
49	50	Georgia	Division II B	740	800	0[a]	460	—	380	1455	1	1125	3
50	49	Hong Kong	Division III B	500	560	560	220	280	180	1325	1	1275	2
51	51	Singapore	Division III B	500	520	540	120	—	40	1190		995
52	53	Philippines	Division III B	500	540	480	100	—	60	1170	1	965	2
53	57	Mongolia	Division III B	500	480	460	—	—	—	1090	4	825
54	54	Iran	Division IV	380	500	520	140	—	—	1050		960
55	52	Kuwait	Division IV	380	460	440	80	240	120	1025	3	980	2
56	56	North Korea	Division III B	500	580	—	360	—	320	1025		840
57	55	Malaysia	Division IV	380	420	500	100	—	80	970	2	865	3
58	58	Indonesia	Division IV	380	440	420	—	—	—	920		755
59	—	Armenia	Division IV	380	—	—	—	—	—	380		0
60	—	Uzbekistan	Division IV	380	—	—	—	—	—	380	new	—	—

1. Georgia's result in 2023 was invalidated by the IIHF.

Women's rankings

See also: List of IIHF World Rankings

The Women's 2025 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022, and at the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament of 2022.

Most of the tournaments in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, teams were awarded points based on their seeding for their respective tournaments. The Championship division received points based on the previous year's ranking, while Divisions IA, IB, and IIA received points based on the previous year's results. Divisions IIB and III were completed and scored as scheduled in 2020.

For the 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia was still under a 2019 ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) because of that country's state-sponsored doping scheme.^[6] On 19 February 2021, the International Olympic Committee announced that individual athletes from Russia, who had consistently passed ongoing anti-doping tests, could compete under the acronym "ROC" (the full name "Russian Olympic Committee" could not be displayed), and that the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee would be used for the COVID-19 pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics and the unchanged 2022 Winter Olympics.^[7]

The following table lists the ranking following the 2024 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships.^[9] and the calculations of the rankings following the 2025 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships. Scores in italics represent minimum possible scores for unfinished tournaments. All tournament's points have their full value displayed, while the ranking is calculated by adding the current year's tournament points to the depreciated previous three years' tournament points as explained above. The depreciated percentages are shown in the column headings, first for the current total, then for the new total. The "Total" columns are the sums of the current tournament points and the depreciated values for past tournaments. The "+/–" columns indicate the increase or decrease in ranking since the last tournament. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.

2025 Rank	2024 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2025)	WC2025 (—) (100%)	WC2024 (100%) (75%)	WC2023 (75%) (50%)	WC2022 (50%) (25%)	OLY2022 (50%) (25%)	WC2021 (25%) (0%)	2025 Total	+/−	2024 Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	1340	1600	1560	1200	1200	1200	3920		4270
2	2	United States	Championship	1340	1560	1600	1160	1160	1160	3890		4210
3	4	Czech Republic	Championship	1340	1500	1520	1120	1020	1020	3760	1	3965	1
4	3	Finland	Championship	1340	1520	1460	1040	1120	1120	3750	1	3975	1
5	5	Switzerland	Championship	1340	1460	1500	1100	1100	1100	3735		3960	2
6	6	Russia	Expelled	1340	1440	1460	1100	1060	1060	3690		3880
7	8	Sweden	Championship	1340	1420	1440	1020	1000	960	3630	1	3750
8	7	Japan	Championship	1340	1400	1420	1060	1040	1040	3625	1	3775
9	9	Germany	Championship	1340	1440	1400	960	860	1000	3575		3650
10	10	Hungary	Championship	1340	1300	1360	1000	920	960	3475		3520
11	14	Norway	Championship	1340	1320	1240	900	840	880	3385	3	3340	1
12	12	China	Division I A	1220	1360	1320	820	960	740	3345		3425	2
13	11	Denmark	Division I A	1220	1340	1300	940	940	940	3345	2	3490
14	13	France	Division I A	1220	1280	1340	920	880	920	3300	1	3415	1
15	15	Austria	Division I A	1220	1260	1280	860	900	860	3245		3315	2
16	17	Netherlands	Division I A	1220	1240	1260	840	740	780	3175	1	3170
17	16	Slovakia	Division I A	1220	1200	1220	880	820	840	3155	1	3175
18	18	South Korea	Division I B	1100	1220	1200	740	780	800	2995		3080	1
19	19	Italy	Division I B	1100	1160	1160	780	800	820	2945		3025	1
20	21	Great Britain	Division I B	1100	1140	1120	700	720	660	2870	1	2855	2
21	20	Poland	Division II A	1060	1100	1180	800	760	760	2865	1	2955
22	22	Slovenia	Division I B	1100	1120	1140	720	680	680	2860		2845	1
23	23	Kazakhstan	Division I B	1100	1080	1100	760	660	720	2815		2795	1
24	24	Spain	Division II A	1080	1060	1060	660	700	640	2745		2695
25	27	Latvia	Division I B	1100	1180	1080	680	—	700	2695	2	2505	2
26	26	Chinese Taipei	Division II A	1020	1020	1020	640	620	540	2610		2550
27	25	Mexico	Division II A	980	1040	1040	620	640	620	2595	2	2605
28	28	Iceland	Division II A	1040	1000	1000	580	600	520	2585		2470	1
29	29	Turkey	Division II B	860	880	860	540	580	580	2260		2275	1
30	30	Hong Kong	Division II B	860	920	840	380	560	460	2205		2135
31	32	Belgium	Division II B	860	980	960	460	—	400	2190	1	2030	4
32	31	Australia	Division II B	860	940	940	560	—	560	2175	1	2065
33	33	New Zealand	Division II B	860	900	920	540	—	500	2130		1985	1
34	34	Lithuania	Division III A	840	800	800	440	520	340	2080		1965	2
35	38	Ukraine	Division II B	860	840	820	460	—	380	2015	3	1780
36	35	South Africa	Division III A	740	860	900	520	—	420	1965	1	1900	2
37	37	Croatia	Division III A	760	760	880	500	—	480	1895		1790	2
38	36	Bulgaria	Division III B	720	740	760	420	540	360	1895	2	1880	3
39	39	Romania	Division III A	780	820	780	420	—	440	1890		1725
40	42	North Korea	Division II A	1000	960	—	620	—	600	1875	2	1420	2
41	41	Serbia	Division III A	800	780	720	320	—	—	1825		1480	2
42	40	Estonia	Division III B	680	700	740	340	—	320	1660	2	1505	1
43	44	Israel	Division III B	700	680	700	280	—	—	1630	1	1345
44	43	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	660	640	680	300	—	300	1555	1	1375	1
45	45	Thailand	Division III A	820	720	—	—	—	—	1360		720	new
46	46	Singapore	Division III B	640	660	—	—	—	—	1135		660	new

See also

• List of IIHF World Rankings