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 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 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: 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 2021 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships,[9] 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	1200	1200	1160	1120	1200	1060	4130		4065	1
2	2	Canada	Championship	1160	1040	1200	1200	1160	1100	3990		3995	1
3	3	Russia	Expelled	1120	1160	1060	1160	1120	1040	3935		3910
4	4	United States	Championship	1100	1060	1120	1040	1020	1120	3775		3750
5	5	Sweden	Championship	1040	1100	960	1100	1060	1200	3675		3715	2
6	7	Czech Republic	Championship	1120	960	1020	1060	1100	1020	3650	1	3580	1
7	6	Switzerland	Championship	1060	1000	1040	1000	1000	1160	3590	1	3580	2
8	8	Slovakia	Championship	1000	1120	1000	960	960	960	3590		3560	1
9	9	Germany	Championship	1020	940	1100	1020	1040	920	3555		3555	4
10	10	Denmark	Championship	960	1020	900	900	920	940	3335		3290	2
11	11	Latvia	Championship	940	920	920	940	940	1000	3255		3265	1
12	12	Norway	Championship	880	880	880	920	900	880	3105		3120	1
13	13	France	Championship	900	860	840	800	840	900	3000		2945	2
14	14	Belarus	Expelled	860	840	840	880	780	840	2965		2940
15	17	Austria	Championship	920	800	780	780	820	860	2900	2	2790	1
16	15	Kazakhstan	Championship	860	700	940	840	800	760	2885	1	2860	2
17	16	Italy	Championship	840	740	820	860	860	780	2840	1	2830	1
18	18	Great Britain	Championship	820	660	860	820	880	800	2755		2775	2
19	19	Slovenia	Division I A	800	820	740	740	740	720	2730		2665	1
20	21	Hungary	Division I A	780	780	720	720	720	740	2640	1	2585
21	20	South Korea	Division I A	740	720	760	760	760	820	2600	1	2635	1
22	22	Poland	Division I B	700	760	700	660	660	700	2480		2460
23	24	Lithuania	Division I A	760	600	680	680	700	680	2385	1	2310	1
24	23	Romania	Division I A	720	640	660	700	680	600	2375	1	2315	1
25	25	Japan	Division I B	680	680	640	640	640	660	2320		2285
26	27	China	Division II A	600	900	500	480	480	500	2235	1	2125	5
27	28	Ukraine	Division I B	660	620	600	600	600	620	2180	1	2125	1
28	26	Estonia	Division I B	640	580	620	620	620	640	2150	2	2135
29	29	Netherlands	Division II A	580	560	580	560	580	560	2000		1990	1
30	30	Serbia	Division I B	620	500	560	580	560	520	1970		1905	1
31	31	Croatia	Division II A	560	540	540	540	540	580	1910		1900	1
32	32	Spain	Division II A	540	520	520	500	500	440	1825		1775	1
33	34	Israel	Division II A	520	420	460	460	440	400	1625	1	1545
34	33	Iceland	Division II B	480	480	440	420	420	460	1605	1	1560	2
35	35	Mexico	Division II B	400	360	400	360	360	360	1330		1300	2
36	36	Australia	Division II A	560	—	480	520	520	540	1310		1265	3
37	37	Bulgaria	Division II B	420	380	340	340	320	300	1305		1210	3
38	38	Turkey	Division III A	340	460	300	300	300	280	1250		1205	4
39	40	Chinese Taipei	Division III A	300	440	240	240	240	260	1100	1	1045	5
40	39	Belgium	Division II B	440	—	420	440	460	480	1090	1	1100	3
41	43	Georgia	Division II B	460	—	380	380	380	320	1030	2	935	5
42	42	New Zealand	Division II B	440	—	360	400	400	420	1010		965	3
43	44	United Arab Emirates	Division III A	360	320	200	220	200	160	990	1	825	3
44	41	Luxembourg	Division III A	280	300	280	260	260	340	985	3	990	2
45	45	North Korea	Division III A	360	—	320	320	340	380	845		825	4
46	47	Thailand	Division III B	220	340	140	160	160	—	785	1	680	3
47	46	Hong Kong	Division III B	220	280	180	180	180	220	770	1	740	2
48	48	Turkmenistan	Division III A	320	—	260	280	280	200	725		660	4
49	50	Kyrgyzstan	Division IV	160	400	100	100	100	—	710	1	625	2
50	49	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	200	260	160	140	140	180	685	1	640
51	52	South Africa	Division III B	240	—	220	200	220	240	560	1	540	6
52	51	Kuwait	Division IV	80	240	120	120	120	140	500	1	545
53	53	Malaysia	Division IV	100	—	80	80	—	—	200		140
54	54	Philippines	Division IV	100	—	60	60	—	—	175		105
55	55	Singapore	Division IV	120	—	40	—	—	—	150		40
56	—	Iran	Division IV	140	—	—	—	—	—	140	new

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

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.

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 2021 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships,[9] 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	1200	1200	1200	1160	1120	1160	4160		4120	1
2	2	United States	Championship	1160	1160	1160	1200	1200	1200	4090		4120	1
3	3	Finland	Championship	1040	1120	1120	1120	1160	1120	3850		3940
4	4	Switzerland	Championship	1100	1100	1100	1060	1060	1060	3820		3790	1
5	5	Russia	Expelled	1100	1060	1060	1100	1100	1100	3780		3770	1
6	7	Czech Republic	Championship	1120	1020	1020	1020	1040	1000	3675	1	3575
7	6	Japan	Championship	1060	1040	1040	1040	1000	1040	3650	1	3620
8	8	Sweden	Championship	1020	1000	960	920	960	1020	3440		3385	1
9	11	Hungary	Championship	1000	920	960	940	920	920	3340	2	3275	1
10	9	Germany	Championship	960	860	1000	1000	1020	980	3325	1	3365	1
11	10	Denmark	Championship	940	940	940	960	900	900	3290	1	3275	1
12	12	France	Division I A	920	880	920	900	940	960	3175		3185
13	14	Norway	Division I A	900	840	880	880	880	880	3060	1	3040	1
14	13	Austria	Division I A	860	900	860	860	860	940	3050	1	3070	1
15	15	Slovakia	Division I A	880	820	840	840	840	860	2960		2925
16	17	China	Division I B	820	960	740	740	740	760	2890	1	2815	3
17	16	Italy	Division I B	780	800	820	800	820	840	2800	1	2840
18	19	Netherlands	Division I A	840	740	780	820	800	720	2775	1	2715	1
19	18	South Korea	Division I B	740	780	800	780	780	820	2705	1	2760	1
20	20	Poland	Division I B	800	760	760	760	760	740	2700		2655	1
21	21	Kazakhstan	Division I B	760	660	720	720	720	780	2500		2475
22	22	Slovenia	Division I B	720	680	680	700	680	640	2430		2385	1
23	23	Great Britain	Division II A	700	720	660	660	660	700	2410		2380	1
24	24	Spain	Division II A	660	700	640	640	640	600	2320		2290	1
25	25	Mexico	Division II A	620	640	620	620	620	620	2190		2190	1
26	26	Chinese Taipei	Division II A	640	620	540	580	560	580	2095		2020	4
27	27	Iceland	Division II B	580	600	520	540	520	560	1970		1925	4
28	28	Turkey	Division II B	540	580	580	500	500	520	1930		1915
29	29	Latvia	Division II A	680	—	700	680	700	800	1720		1760	7
30	30	Hong Kong	Division III A	360	560	460	340	380	420	1530		1570	4
31	31	North Korea	Division II A	620	—	600	600	600	680	1520		1520	4
32	32	Bulgaria	Division III A	420	540	360	380	360	400	1510		1465	7
33	33	Australia	Division II B	560	—	560	560	580	660	1405		1435	4
34	36	Lithuania	Division III A	440	520	340	360	—	—	1395	2	1130	4
35	34	New Zealand	Division II B	540	—	500	520	540	540	1310	1	1295	2
36	35	Croatia	Division II B	500	—	480	480	480	480	1220	1	1200	2
37	38	South Africa	Division II B	520	—	420	440	400	440	1155	1	1060	2
38	40	Ukraine	Division III A	460	—	380	460	440	—	1085	2	945	2
39	39	Belgium	Division III A	460	—	400	420	420	460	1075		1040	2
40	37	Romania	Division III A	420	—	440	400	460	500	1065	3	1095	2
41	41	Estonia	Division III B	340	—	320	—	—	—	580		320
42	42	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Division III B	300	—	300	—	—	—	525		300
43	—	Serbia	Division III B	320	—	—	—	—	—	320	new
44	—	Israel	Division III B	280	—	—	—	—	—	280	new

• List of IIHF World Rankings

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