IIHF World Ranking

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]

The Men's 2022 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019, and at the 2022 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Beijing, China.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russia's Olympic Committee and many of its athletes were banned for illegal doping.[5] The IIHF opposed an outright ban on all Russian players,[6] concerned that the KHL would disallow its players from participating in the tournament, as the NHL had done. 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.

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.[7]

The following table lists the full breakdown of ranking following the 2021 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships,[8] and the calculations of the rankings following the 2022 Men's Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament and the 2022 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.

2022 Rank	OLY 2022 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2022)	WC2022 (—) (100%)	OLY2022 (100%) (100%)	WC2021 (100%) (75%)	WC2020 (75%) (50%)	WC2019 (50%) (25%)	WC2018 (25%) (0%)	2022 Total	+/-	OLY 2022 Total	+/−
1	1	Finland	Championship	820	1200	1160	1120	1200	1060	3750		4065	1
2	2	Canada	Championship	820	1040	1200	1200	1160	1100	3650		3995	1
3	4	United States	Championship	820	1060	1120	1040	1020	1120	3495	1	3750
4	5	Sweden	Championship	820	1100	960	1100	1060	1200	3455	1	3715	2
5	8	Slovakia	Championship	820	1120	1000	960	960	960	3410	3	3560	1
6	9	Germany	Championship	820	940	1100	1020	1040	920	3355	3	3555	4
7	7	Czech Republic	Championship	820	960	1020	1060	1100	1020	3350		3580	1
8	6	Switzerland	Championship	820	1000	1040	1000	1000	1160	3350	2	3580	2
9	10	Denmark	Championship	820	1020	900	900	920	940	3195	1	3290	2
10	11	Latvia	Championship	820	920	920	940	940	1000	3135	1	3265	1
11	12	Norway	Championship	820	880	880	920	900	880	3045	1	3120	1
12	13	France	Championship	820	860	840	800	840	900	2920	1	2945	2
13	15	Kazakhstan	Championship	820	700	940	840	800	760	2845	2	2860	2
14	16	Italy	Championship	820	740	820	860	860	780	2820	2	2830	1
15	3	Russia	Expelled	0	1160	1060	1160	1120	1040	2815	12	3910
16	17	Austria	Championship	820	800	780	780	820	860	2800	1	2790	1
17	18	Great Britain	Championship	820	660	860	820	880	800	2755	1	2775	2
18	19	Slovenia	Division I A	680	820	740	740	740	720	2610	1	2665	1
19	20	South Korea	Division I A	680	720	760	760	760	820	2540	1	2635	1
20	21	Hungary	Division I A	680	780	720	720	720	740	2540	1	2585
21	22	Poland	Division I B	640	760	700	660	660	700	2420	1	2460
22	23	Romania	Division I A	680	640	660	700	680	600	2335	1	2315	1
23	24	Lithuania	Division I A	680	600	680	680	700	680	2305	1	2310	1
24	25	Japan	Division I B	640	680	640	640	640	660	2280	1	2285
25	27	China	Division II A	560	900	500	480	480	500	2195	2	2125	5
26	14	Belarus	Expelled	0	840	840	880	780	840	2105	12	2940
27	28	Ukraine	Division I B	600	620	600	600	600	620	2120	1	2125	1
28	26	Estonia	Division I B	600	580	620	620	620	640	2110	2	2135
29	29	Netherlands	Division II A	540	560	580	560	580	560	1960		1990	1
30	30	Serbia	Division I B	580	500	560	580	560	520	1930		1905	1
31	31	Croatia	Division II A	520	540	540	540	540	580	1870		1900	1
32	32	Spain	Division II A	500	520	520	500	500	440	1785		1775	1
33	34	Israel	Division II A	480	420	460	460	440	400	1585	1	1545
34	33	Iceland	Division II B	440	480	440	420	420	460	1565	1	1560	2
35	35	Mexico	Division II B	360	360	400	360	360	360	1290		1300	2
36	37	Bulgaria	Division II B	380	380	340	340	320	300	1265	1	1210	3
37	38	Turkey	Division III A	300	460	300	300	300	280	1210	1	1205	4
38	40	Chinese Taipei	Division III A	260	440	240	240	240	260	1060	2	1045	5
39	39	Belgium	Division II B	400	—	420	440	460	480	1050		1100	3
40	43	Georgia	Division II B	420	—	380	380	380	320	990	3	935	5
41	44	United Arab Emirates	Division III A	320	320	200	220	200	160	950	3	825	3
42	41	Luxembourg	Division III A	240	300	280	260	260	340	945	1	990	2
43	36	Australia	Division II A	—	—	480	520	520	540	750	7	1265	3
44	47	Thailand	Division III B	180	340	140	160	160	—	745	3	680	3
45	48	Turkmenistan	Division III A	280	—	260	280	280	200	685	3	660	4
46	50	Kyrgyzstan	Division IV	120	400	100	100	100	—	670	4	625	2
47	49	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	160	260	160	140	140	180	645	2	640
48	42	New Zealand	Division II B	—	—	360	400	400	420	570	6	965	3
49	46	Hong Kong	Division III B	—	280	180	180	180	220	550	3	740	2
50	52	South Africa	Division III B	200	—	220	200	220	240	520	2	540	6
51	45	North Korea	Division III A	—	—	320	320	340	380	485	6	825	4
52	51	Kuwait	Division IV	40	240	120	120	120	140	460	1	545
53	53	Malaysia	Division IV	60	—	80	80	—	—	160		140
54	55	Singapore	Division IV	80	—	40	—	—	—	110	1	40
55	—	Iran	Division IV	100	—	—	—	—	—	100	new
56	54	Philippines	Division IV	—	—	60	60	—	—	75	2	105

The Women's 2022 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019, and at the 2022 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Beijing, China.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russia's Olympic Committee and many of its athletes were banned due to systemic illegal doping.[5] The IIHF opposed an outright ban on all Russian players[6] 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.

Most of the 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 Divisions IA, IB, and IIA received points based on the previous year's results. Divisions IIB and III were completed and scored as scheduled.

The following table lists the ranking following the 2021 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships,[8] and the calculations of the rankings following the 2022 Women's Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament and 2022 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.

2022 Rank	OLY 2022 Rank	Team	WC division (as of 2022)	WC2022 (—) (100%)	OLY2022 (100%) (100%)	WC2021 (100%) (75%)	WC2020 (75%) (50%)	WC2019 (50%) (25%)	WC2018 (25%) (0%)	2022 Total	+/-	OLY 2022 Total	+/−
1	1	Canada	Championship	940	1200	1200	1160	1120	1160	3900		4120	1
2	2	United States	Championship	940	1160	1160	1200	1200	1200	3870		4120	1
3	3	Finland	Championship	940	1120	1120	1120	1160	1120	3750		3940
4	4	Switzerland	Championship	940	1100	1100	1060	1060	1060	3660		3790	1
5	6	Japan	Championship	940	1040	1040	1040	1000	1040	3530	1	3620
6	7	Czech Republic	Championship	940	1020	1020	1020	1040	1000	3495	1	3575
7	8	Sweden	Championship	940	1000	960	920	960	1020	3360	1	3385	1
8	9	Germany	Championship	940	860	1000	1000	1020	980	3305	1	3365	1
9	10	Denmark	Championship	940	940	940	960	900	900	3290	1	3275	1
10	11	Hungary	Championship	940	920	960	940	920	920	3280	1	3275	1
11	12	France	Division I A	900	880	920	900	940	960	3155	1	3185
12	14	Norway	Division I A	880	840	880	880	880	880	3040	2	3040	1
13	13	Austria	Division I A	840	900	860	860	860	940	3030		3070	1
14	15	Slovakia	Division I A	860	820	840	840	840	860	2940	1	2925
15	17	China	Division I B	800	960	740	740	740	760	2870	2	2815	3
16	16	Italy	Division I B	760	800	820	800	820	840	2780		2840
17	19	Netherlands	Division I A	820	740	780	820	800	720	2755	2	2715	1
18	20	Poland	Division I B	780	760	760	760	760	740	2680	2	2655	1
19	18	South Korea	Division I B	720	780	800	780	780	820	2685	1	2760	1
20	5	Russia	Expelled	0	1060	1060	1100	1100	1100	2680	15	3770	1
21	21	Kazakhstan	Division I B	740	660	720	720	720	780	2480		2475
22	22	Slovenia	Division I B	700	680	680	700	680	640	2410		2385	1
23	23	Great Britain	Division II A	680	720	660	660	660	700	2390		2380	1
24	24	Spain	Division II A	640	700	640	640	640	600	2300		2290	1
25	25	Mexico	Division II A	600	640	620	620	620	620	2170		2190	1
26	26	Chinese Taipei	Division II A	620	620	540	580	560	580	2075		2020	4
27	27	Iceland	Division II B	500	600	520	540	520	560	1890		1925	4
28	28	Turkey	Division II B	500	580	580	500	500	520	1890		1915
29	29	Latvia	Division II A	660	—	700	680	700	800	1700		1760	7
30	32	Bulgaria	Division III A	400	540	360	380	360	400	1490	2	1465	7
31	36	Lithuania	Division III A	420	520	340	360	—	—	1375	5	1130	4
32	35	Croatia	Division II B	500	—	480	480	480	480	1220	3	1200	2
33	30	Hong Kong	Division III A	—	560	460	340	380	420	1170	3	1570	4
34	38	South Africa	Division II B	500	—	420	440	400	440	1135	4	1060	2
35	39	Belgium	Division III A	440	—	400	420	420	460	1055	4	1040	2
36	31	North Korea	Division II A	—	—	600	600	600	680	900	5	1520	4
37	33	Australia	Division II B	—	—	560	560	580	660	845	4	1435	4
38	34	New Zealand	Division II B	—	—	500	520	540	540	770	4	1295	2
39	37	Romania	Division III A	—	—	440	400	460	500	645	2	1095	2
40	40	Ukraine	Division III A	—	—	380	460	440	—	625		945	2
41	41	Estonia	Division III B	320	—	320	—	—	—	560		320
42	42	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	280	—	300	—	—	—	505		300
43	—	Serbia	Division III B	300	—	—	—	—	—	300	new
44	—	Israel	Division III B	260	—	—	—	—	—	260	new

• List of IIHF World Rankings

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