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.

Description

The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2003.^[1] 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".^[2]

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.^[3]

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. 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

Notes: (a) 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. (b) Due to the point value change from 2023, tournaments from 2020-2022 will still use the 1200 point values in the formula.