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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. As of 2016, the current leader in rankings is Canada in men's play and the United States in women's play.
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The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2003. 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."
Current calculation method
The world ranking is based on the final positions of the last four Ice Hockey 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 1200 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.
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. For example, if in 2016 a team had won the gold medal in the last four championships and the last Olympic tournament their score would be 3600:
Usage
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 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.
Men's rankings
The Men's 2016 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013, and at the 2014 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Sochi, Russia. The Olympic and World Championships tournaments are rated equally. 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 "Total" column is the sum of the current tournament points and the depreciated values for past tournaments. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.
Eight nations have achieved a top ten ranking every time (including Olympic rankings) between 2003–16, they are (in order of average ranking): Sweden, Canada, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, the United States, Slovakia, and Switzerland. An additional four nations, Latvia (eleven times), Germany (ten times), Belarus (eight times), and Norway (five times) have been in the top ten at least once. As of 2016, three countries have accomplished a first-place ranking: Canada seven times, Sweden six times, and Russia four times. Sweden and Canada are the only nations to have achieved a top five ranking every time.
The following table lists the ranking after the results of the 2016 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.
Women's rankings
The Women's 2017 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, and at the 2014 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Sochi, Russia. The Olympic and World Championships tournaments are rated equally. 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 "Total" column is the sum of the current tournament points and the depreciated values for past tournaments. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.
Only six nations have achieved a top ten ranking every time between 2003–2016. These nations are (in order of average ranking): Canada, the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Switzerland. An additional eight nations, Germany (fourteen times), Japan (thirteen times), Kazakhstan (ten times), China (nine times), Slovakia (five times), Czech Republic (five times), Norway (twice) and Denmark (twice) have been in the top ten at least once. Canada (eleven times) and United States (four times) are the only countries to have accomplished a first-place ranking as well as the only two to achieve a top two ranking every time.
2017
The following table lists the ranking after results of the ongoing 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship. Scores in italics represent minimum possible scores for unfinished tournaments.