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 2024 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021, 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 the 2022 and 2023 World Championships 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] 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.

2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2024)	WC2024 (—) (100%)	WC2023 (100%) (75%)	WC2022 (75%) (50%)	OLY2022 (75%) (50%)	WC2021 (50%) (25%)	WC2020 (25%) (—)	2024 Total	+/−	2023 Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	1500	1600	1160	1040	1200	1200	4100		4150	1
2	3	Russia	Expelled	1520	1520	1120	1160	1060	1160	4065	1	4050
3	2	Finland	Championship	1400	1420	1200	1200	1160	1120	3955	1	4080	1
4	8	Czech Republic	Championship	1600	1400	1120	960	1020	1060	3945	4	3735	2
5	7	Switzerland	Championship	1560	1460	1060	1000	1040	1000	3945	2	3775
6	4	United States	Championship	1460	1500	1100	1060	1120	1040	3945	2	3940
7	6	Sweden	Championship	1520	1440	1040	1100	960	1100	3910	1	3800	1
8	5	Germany	Championship	1440	1560	1020	940	1100	1020	3865	3	3835	4
9	9	Slovakia	Championship	1420	1360	1000	1120	1000	960	3750		3690	1
10	10	Latvia	Championship	1360	1520	940	920	920	940	3660		3610	1
11	11	Denmark	Championship	1280	1340	960	1020	900	900	3500		3500	1
12	12	Norway	Championship	1320	1280	880	880	880	920	3380		3270
13	16	Austria	Championship	1340	1260	920	800	780	780	3340	3	3135	1
14	13	France	Championship	1260	1300	900	860	840	800	3325	1	3240
15	15	Kazakhstan	Championship	1300	1320	860	700	940	840	3305		3170	1
16	14	Belarus	Expelled	1240	1260	860	840	840	880	3245	2	3175
17	20	Great Britain	Championship	1240	1200	820	660	860	820	3095	3	2945	2
18	19	Hungary	Division I A	1200	1240	780	780	720	720	3090	1	2950	1
19	17	Slovenia	Division I A	1180	1220	800	820	740	740	3090	2	2990	2
20	18	Italy	Division I A	1160	1160	840	740	820	860	3025	2	2970	1
21	22	Poland	Championship	1220	1180	700	760	700	660	3010	1	2790
22	21	South Korea	Division I A	1100	1140	740	720	760	760	2875	1	2805
23	23	Romania	Division I A	1140	1120	720	640	660	700	2825		2645	1
24	25	Japan	Division I A	1120	1080	680	680	640	640	2770	1	2580
25	24	Lithuania	Division I B	1060	1100	760	600	680	680	2735	1	2630	1
26	26	China	Division I B	1020	1040	600	900	500	480	2675		2535
27	27	Ukraine	Division I B	1080	1060	660	620	600	600	2665		2470
28	28	Estonia	Division I B	1040	1020	640	580	620	620	2570		2400
29	29	Netherlands	Division I B	980	1000	580	560	580	560	2445		2285
30	32	Spain	Division I B	1000	960	540	520	520	500	2380	2	2140
31	30	Serbia	Division II A	940	980	620	500	560	580	2375	1	2245
32	31	Croatia	Division II A	960	940	560	540	540	540	2350	1	2170
33	33	Israel	Division II A	900	900	520	420	460	460	2160		1950
34	34	Iceland	Division II A	860	880	480	480	440	420	2110		1925
35	35	Australia	Division II A	880	920	560	—	480	520	1970		1710	1
36	39	United Arab Emirates	Division II A	920	840	360	320	200	220	1940	3	1505	4
37	36	Bulgaria	Division II B	780	800	420	380	340	340	1865	1	1655	1
38	38	Turkey	Division II B	740	760	340	460	300	300	1785		1585
39	40	Belgium	Division II B	840	820	440	—	420	440	1780	1	1470
40	41	Chinese Taipei	Division II B	760	720	300	440	240	240	1730	1	1455	2
41	42	New Zealand	Division II B	820	780	440	—	360	400	1715	1	1390
42	37	Mexico	Division III A	620	740	400	360	400	360	1655	5	1600	2
43	44	Thailand	Division III A	720	660	220	340	140	160	1530	1	1190	2
44	43	Luxembourg	Division III A	680	640	280	300	280	260	1520	1	1280	1
45	46	Kyrgyzstan	Division III A	700	600	160	400	100	100	1455	1	1095	3
46	45	Turkmenistan	Division III A	660	700	320	—	260	280	1410	1	1140	3
47	49	South Africa	Division III A	640	680	240	—	220	200	1325	2	1020	2
48	48	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	600	580	200	260	160	140	1305		1040	2
49	47	Hong Kong	Division III B	560	560	220	280	180	180	1275	2	1070
50	53	Georgia	Division II B	800	0[a]	460	—	380	380	1125	3	630	12
51	51	Singapore	Division III B	520	540	120	—	40	—	995		650	4
52	50	Kuwait	Division IV	460	440	80	240	120	120	980	2	770	2
53	55	Philippines	Division III B	540	480	100	—	60	60	965	2	600	1
54	54	Iran	Division III B	500	520	140	—	—	—	960		625	2
55	52	Malaysia	Division IV	420	500	100	—	80	80	865	3	635	1
56	56	North Korea	Division III B	580	—	360	—	320	320	840		510	11
57	57	Mongolia	Division IV	480	460	—	—	—	—	825		460	new
58	58	Indonesia	Division IV	440	420	—	—	—	—	755		420	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 2024 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021, 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] 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.

2024 Rank	2023 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2023)	WC2024 (—) (100%)	WC2023 (100%) (75%)	WC2022 (75%) (50%)	OLY2022 (75%) (50%)	WC2021 (50%) (25%)	WC2020 (25%) (0%)	2024 Total	+/−	2023 Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	1600	1560	1200	1200	1200	1160	4270		4250
2	2	United States	Championship	1560	1600	1160	1160	1160	1200	4210		4220
3	4	Finland	Championship	1520	1460	1040	1120	1120	1120	3975	1	3920	1
4	5	Czech Republic	Championship	1500	1520	1120	1020	1020	1020	3965	1	3890	1
5	3	Switzerland	Championship	1460	1500	1100	1100	1100	1060	3960	2	3965	1
6	6	Russia	Expelled	1440	1460	1100	1060	1060	1100	3880		3885	1
7	7	Japan	Championship	1400	1420	1060	1040	1040	1040	3775		3775
8	8	Sweden	Championship	1420	1440	1020	1000	960	920	3750		3665
9	9	Germany	Championship	1440	1400	960	860	1000	1000	3650		3515	1
10	10	Hungary	Division I A	1300	1360	1000	920	960	940	3520		3515	1
11	11	Denmark	Championship	1340	1300	940	940	940	960	3490		3420
12	14	China	Championship	1360	1320	820	960	740	740	3425	2	3210	2
13	12	France	Division I A	1280	1340	920	880	920	900	3415	1	3375
14	15	Norway	Division I A	1320	1240	900	840	880	880	3340	1	3205	2
15	13	Austria	Division I A	1260	1280	860	900	860	860	3315	2	3245	1
16	16	Slovakia	Division I B	1200	1220	880	820	840	840	3175		3125	1
17	17	Netherlands	Division I A	1240	1260	840	740	780	820	3170		3040	1
18	19	South Korea	Division I A	1220	1200	740	780	800	780	3080	1	2935
19	18	Italy	Division I B	1160	1160	780	800	820	800	3025	1	2955	1
20	20	Poland	Division I B	1100	1180	800	760	760	760	2955		2920
21	23	Great Britain	Division I B	1140	1120	700	720	660	660	2855	2	2680
22	21	Slovenia	Division I B	1120	1140	720	680	680	700	2845	1	2705	1
23	22	Kazakhstan	Division II A	1080	1100	760	660	720	720	2795	1	2705	1
24	24	Spain	Division II A	1060	1060	660	700	640	640	2695		2560
25	25	Mexico	Division II A	1040	1040	620	640	620	620	2605		2450
26	26	Chinese Taipei	Division II A	1020	1020	640	620	540	580	2550		2380
27	29	Latvia	Division I B	1180	1080	680	—	700	680	2505	2	2110
28	27	Iceland	Division II A	1000	1000	580	600	520	540	2470	1	2280
29	28	Turkey	Division II B	880	860	540	580	580	500	2275	1	2115
30	30	Hong Kong	Division II B	920	840	380	560	460	340	2135		1860
31	31	Australia	Division II B	940	940	560	—	560	560	2065		1780	2
32	36	Belgium	Division II A	980	960	460	—	400	420	2030	4	1610	3
33	34	New Zealand	Division II B	900	920	540	—	500	520	1985	1	1705	1
34	32	Lithuania	Division III A	800	800	440	520	340	360	1965	2	1780	2
35	37	South Africa	Division II B	860	900	520	—	420	440	1900	2	1610
36	33	Bulgaria	Division III A	740	760	420	540	360	380	1880	3	1755	1
37	35	Croatia	Division III A	760	880	500	—	480	480	1790	2	1615	1
38	38	Ukraine	Division III A	840	820	460	—	380	460	1780		1470
39	39	Romania	Division III A	820	780	420	—	440	400	1725		1415	1
40	41	Estonia	Division III B	700	740	340	—	320	—	1505	1	1155
41	43	Serbia	Division III A	780	720	320	—	—	—	1480	2	960
42	40	North Korea	Division II B	960	—	620	—	600	600	1420	2	1315	9
43	42	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	640	680	300	—	300	—	1375	1	1055
44	44	Israel	Division III B	680	700	280	—	—	—	1345		910
45	—	Thailand	Division III B	720	—	—	—	—	—	720	new	—	—
46	—	Singapore	Division III B	660	—	—	—	—	—	660	new	—	—

See also

• List of IIHF World Rankings

References

1. "IIHF – World Ranking". iihf.com. IIHF. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
2. Hockey Canada (30 September 2003). "IIHF Introduces World Ranking and Ranks Canada First in Men's and Women's Hockey". Retrieved 27 May 2019.
3. Edvinsson, Jan-Ake, ed. (November 2003). "News release–Hockey fans are the best in the world" (PDF). Ice Times. 7 (5). International Ice Hockey Federation: 7. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
4. "Olympic Winter Games". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
5. "IIHF – Groups for 2022". iihf.com. IIHF. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
6. Ruiz, Rebecca R.; Panja, Tariq (5 December 2017). "Russia Banned From Winter Olympics by I.O.C." The New York Times.
7. "Olympics: Russia to compete under ROC acronym in Tokyo as part of doping sanctions". Reuters. 19 February 2021. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
8. "Finland Stays #1 in World Ranking". iihf.com. IIHF. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
9. "IIHF - World Ranking". IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 29 May 2024.

External links

• World Ranking for the current year at IIHF.com
• World Rankings from 2007 to 2018 at IIHF.com