IIHF World Ranking

Top 20 rankings as of 21 May 2018
(Women as of April 2018)

Men's[1] Rank Change* Team Points 1  Canada 3990 2 1  Sweden 3945 3 1  Russia 3930 4 2  United States 3765 5 1  Finland 3765 6 1  Czech Republic 3690 7 1   Switzerland 3590 8 1  Germany 3575 9  Norway 3270 10  Slovakia 3245 11 2  Latvia 3225 12 2  Denmark 3130 13 1  France 3115 14 3  Belarus 3085 15  Slovenia 2915 16 2  South Korea 2835 17  Austria 2820 18 2  Kazakhstan 2760 19  Italy 2725 20  Hungary 2595	Women's[2] Rank Change* Team Points 1  United States 4200 2  Canada 4060 3  Finland 3910 4  Russia 3830 5 1   Switzerland 3655 6 1  Sweden 3615 7 1  Japan 3555 8 1  Germany 3475 9 0  Czech Republic 3470 10 1  France 3225 11 1  Austria 3200 12 1  Denmark 3130 13 1  Norway 3130 14  Hungary 3015 15  Slovakia 2930 16 1  South Korea 2880 17 1  Italy 2830 18 2  Latvia 2805 19 1  Kazakhstan 2715 20 1  China 2685
*Change from 1 January 2018 (Women from April 2017)
Complete rankings at IIHF.com

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 men's play and the United States in women's play.

Description

The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2003.^[3] According to 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."^[4]

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 2014 Winter Olympics, the first nine 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 2014 Winter Olympics was structured around the 2012 ranking. Twelve spots were made available for teams. The top nine teams in the World Ranking after the 2012 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 29th played a preliminary qualification in September 2012. The winner of the preliminary and teams ranked 19-29th were divided in three groups to play in the pre-qualification round in November 2012. The winner of each pre-qualification group and teams ranked 10-18 were divided in three groups to play in the final qualification in February 2013. The winner of each group then joined the nine top-ranked teams in the Olympics in 2014.

The women's tournament uses a similar qualification format. The top six teams in the IIHF Women's World Ranking after the 2012 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 19th and below were divided into two groups where they played in a preliminary qualification round in the autumn of 2012. The two winners and teams ranked 13-18 were divided into two groups where they played in the pre-qualification round in November 2012. The two group winners from the round advanced to the final qualification round, where the teams ranked seventh through twelfth joined them.^[5]

Men's rankings

The Men's 2018 ranking^[1] is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015, and at the 2018 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Pyeongchang, South Korea.^[6]

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russia's Olympic Committee and many of its athletes were banned for illegal doping.^[7] The IIHF opposed an outright ban on all Russian players, concerned that the KHL would disallow its players from participating in the tournament, as the NHL had done.^[8] The ice hockey team from the Russian hockey federation played under the banner of the International Olympic Committee as "Olympic Athletes from Russia", along with other Russian athletes not banned for doping.^[8]

The following table lists the current ranking following the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 Men's World Ice Hockey 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.

Old Rank	New Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2018)	Olympic Qualifying Round	WC2018 (—) (100%)	OLY2018 (100%) (100%)	WC2017 (100%) (75%)	WC2016 (75%) (50%)	WC2015 (50%) (25%)	WC2014 (25%) (—)	Previous Total	+/−	New Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	Olympics	1100	1120	1160	1200	1200	1060	4045	—	3990	—
3	2	Sweden	Championship	Olympics	1200	1060	1200	1040	1060	1120	3850	—	3945	+1
2	3	Russia	Championship	Olympics (as OAR)[7][8]	1040	1200	1120	1120	1160	1200	4040	—	3930	–1
6	4	United States	Championship	Olympics	1120	1020	1060	1100	1120	1040	3725	–1	3765	+2
4	5	Finland	Championship	Olympics	1060	1040	1100	1160	1040	1160	3820	—	3765	–1
5	6	Czech Republic	Championship	Olympics	1020	1100	1020	1060	1100	1100	3740	+1	3690	–1
8	7	Switzerland	Championship	Olympics	1160	940	1040	920	1000	940	3405	–1	3590	+1
7	8	Germany	Championship	Olympics	920	1160	1000	1020	940	860	3610	+1	3575	–1
9	9	Norway	Championship	Olympics	880	1000	920	940	920	900	3310	—	3270	—
10	10	Slovakia	Championship	Olympics	960	920	860	960	960	960	3220	+1	3245	—
13	11	Latvia	Championship	Final Qual	1000	860	940	880	880	920	3130	–1	3225	+2
14	12	Denmark	Championship	Final Qual	940	800	900	1000	860	880	3100	—	3130	+2
12	13	France	Championship	Final Qual	900	840	960	860	900	1000	3145	+1	3115	–1
11	14	Belarus	Championship	Final Qual	840	880	880	900	1020	1020	3200	–1	3085	–3
15	15	Slovenia	Division I A	Olympics	720	960	840	800	820	800	3010	—	2915	—
18	16	South Korea	Championship	Olympics host	820	900	780	720	680	700	2735	+2	2835	+2
17	17	Austria	Championship	Final Qual	860	780	800	740	840	780	2750	−1	2820	—
16	18	Kazakhstan	Division I A	Final Qual	760	820	760	820	800	820	2800	+1	2760	–2
19	19	Italy	Division I A	Final Qual	780	760	820	780	720	840	2735	—	2725	—
20	20	Hungary	Division I A	Prelim 2	740	700	720	840	780	720	2620	–1	2595	—
21	21	Poland	Division I A	Final Qual	700	740	740	760	760	680	2600	–1	2565	—
24	22	Great Britain	Division I A	Prelim 2	800	660	680	660	660	620	2320	—	2465	+2
22	23	Japan	Division I B	Final Qual	660	720	660	700	740	760	2465	+1	2410	–1
23	24	Ukraine	Division I B	Prelim 2	620	680	700	680	700	740	2425	–1	2340	–1
25	25	Lithuania	Division I B	Prelim 2	680	580	640	640	640	640	2180	—	2220	—
27	26	Estonia	Division I B	Prelim 2	640	600	620	600	600	560	2110	—	2155	+1
26	27	Croatia	Division I B	Prelim 2	580	620	600	620	620	660	2160	—	2115	–1
28	28	Netherlands	Division II A	Prelim 2	560	640	580	560	580	600	2080	—	2060	—
29	29	Romania	Division I B	Prelim 2	600	560	560	580	560	580	1980	—	2010	—
30	30	Serbia	Division II A	Prelim 2	520	540	520	500	520	520	1825	—	1830	—
31	31	Spain	Division II B	Prelim 1	440	520	460	540	500	440	1745	—	1700	—
32	32	Iceland	Division II A	Prelim 1	460	480	480	480	480	540	1695	+2	1660	—
33	33	China	Division II A	Prelim 1	500	440	440	460	440	380	1540	+4	1610	—
34	35	Mexico	Division II B	Prelim 1	340	500	360	420	400	420	1480	+2	1440	–1
35	34	Israel	Division II B	Prelim 1	360	460	400	400	360	460	1455	—	1450	+1
38	36	Australia	Division II A	—	540	—	540	440	460	500	1225	–5	1280	+2
36	37	Belgium	Division II A	—	480	—	500	520	540	480	1280	–4	1250	–1
37	38	Bulgaria	Division III	Prelim 1	300	420	300	340	380	320	1245	+3	1210	–1
39	39	New Zealand	Division II B	—	420	—	420	380	420	400	1015	–1	1030	—
41	40	Georgia	Division III	Qual Game	320	400	280	0	240	220	855	+4	990	+1
40	41	North Korea	Division II B	—	380	—	380	360	320	300	885	–1	925	–1
43	42	Luxembourg	Division II B	—	340	—	320	280	280	280	740	–1	790	+1
42	43	Turkey	Division III	—	280	—	340	320	300	340	815	–1	770	–1
44	44	South Africa	Division III	—	240	—	240	300	340	360	725	–1	655	—
45	45	Hong Kong	Division III	—	220	—	260	240	260	260	635	–1	600	—
48	46	Chinese Taipei	Division III	—	260	—	220	—	—	—	220	—	425	+2
46	47	United Arab Emirates	Division III Q	—	160	—	200	—	220	240	370	—	365	–1
47	48	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III Q	—	180	—	0	260	200	—	295	—	360	–1
—	49	Turkmenistan	Division III Q	—	200	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	200	new
—	50	Kuwait	Division III Q	—	140	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	140	new

Source: IIHF^[1]

Women's rankings

The Women's 2018 ranking^[2] is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, and at the 2018 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Pyeongchang, South Korea.^[6]

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russia's Olympic Committee and many of its athletes were banned due to systemic illegal doping.^[7] The IIHF opposed an outright ban on all Russian players^[8] and the ice hockey team from the Russian hockey federation played under the banner of the International Olympic Committee as "Olympic Athletes from Russia", along with other Russian athletes not banned for doping.

The following table lists the ranking following the 2018 Winter Olympic qualification tournaments and the 2018 Winter Olympics. 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.

Current Rank	New Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2018)	Olympic Qualifying Round	WC2018 (—) (100%)	OLY2018 (100%) (100%)	WC2017 (100%) (75%)	WC2016 (75%) (50%)	WC2015 (50%) (25%)	WC20141 (25%) (—)	Current Total	+/−	New Total	+/−
1	1	United States	—	Olympics	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1160	4190	—	4200	—
2	2	Canada	—	Olympics	1160	1160	1160	1160	1160	1200	4070	—	4060	—
3	3	Finland	—	Olympics	1120	1120	1120	1100	1120	1060	3890	—	3910	—
4	4	Russia	—	Olympics (as OAR)[7][8]	1100	1100	1060	1120	1100	10402	3810	—	3830	—
5	6	Sweden	—	Olympics	1020	1020	1040	1060	1060	1100	3660	—	3615	–1
6	5	Switzerland	—	Olympics	1060	1060	1020	1020	1040	1120	3645	—	3655	+1
7	8	Germany	—	Final Qual	980	940	1100	960	1000	1020	3515	—	3475	–1
8	7	Japan	—	Olympics	1040	1040	960	1000	1020	1000	3510	+1	3555	+1
9	9	Czech Republic	—	Final Qual	1000	960	1000	1040	960	960	3460	–1	3470	—
10	11	Austria	Division I A	Final Qual	920	860	940	920	940	880	3180	—	3180	–1
11	10	France	Division I A	Final Qual	940	920	860	940	920	900	3170	+2	3205	+1
12	13	Norway	Division I A	Final Qual	860	900	920	880	880	940	3155	—	3110	–1
13	12	Denmark	Division I A	Final Qual	880	880	900	900	900	920	3135	–2	3110	+1
14	14	Hungary	Division I A	Prelim 3	900	820	880	840	780	800	2920	+1	2995	—
15	15	Slovakia	Division I A	Prelim 3	840	800	840	860	840	860	2920	–1	2910	—
16	18	Latvia	Division I B	Prelim 3	780	780	800	820	860	840	2835	—	2785	–2
17	16	South Korea	Division I B	Olympics host	800	1000	720	700	680	680	2755	+5	2860	+1
18	17	Italy	Division I B	Prelim 3	820	840	760	780	760	720	2745	+1	2810	+1
19	20	China	Division I B	Prelim 3	740	760	780	760	800	820	2715	–1	2665	–1
20	19	Kazakhstan	Division I B	Prelim 3	760	740	820	800	720	740	2705	–3	2695	+1
21	21	Netherlands	Division II A	Prelim 2	700	720	700	740	820	780	2580	–1	2520	—
22	22	Poland	Division I B	Prelim 2	720	700	740	720	660	660	2475	–1	2500	—
23	23	Great Britain	Division II A	Prelim 2	680	660	680	680	700	700	2375	—	2365	—
24	24	Slovenia	Division II A	Prelim 2	620	620	640	640	600	580	2185	—	2190	—
25	25	Spain	Division II B	Prelim 2	580	680	580	580	560	560	2115	+1	2125	—
26	26	Mexico	Division II A	Prelim 2	600	640	600	540	580	480	2055	+3	2105	—
27	27	Turkey	Division II B	Prelim 1	500	600	520	500	480	500	1860	+4	1860	—
28	28	North Korea	Division II A	—	660	—	660	660	740	760	1715	–3	1670	—
29	29	Hong Kong	Division II B Qual	Prelim 1	400	580	400	460	460	420	1660	+5	1625	—
30	30	Australia	Division II A	—	640	—	640	600	520	620	1485	–3	1535	—
31	31	New Zealand	Division II B	—	540	—	560	520	620	640	1420	–3	1375	—
32	32	Iceland	Division II B	—	520	—	540	560	540	540	1365	–2	1340	—
33	34	South Africa	Division II B Qual	—	420	—	440	440	440	460	1105	–1	1080	–1
34	35	Bulgaria	Division II B Qual	—	380	—	420	420	420	440	1055	+1	1010	–1
35	36	Croatia	Division II B Qual	—	460	—	—	620	640	600	935	–2	930	–1
36	33	Romania	Division II B	—	480	—	500	480	—	—	860	—	1095	+3
37	38	Belgium	Division II B Qual	—	440	—	460	—	500	520	840	—	910	–1
38	37	Chinese Taipei	Division II B	—	560	—	480	—	—	—	480	—	920	+1

Source: IIHF.^[2]

See also

• List of IIHF World Rankings

References

External links

• World Ranking at IIHF.com