Top 20 rankings as of June 2026Men'sRankChange*TeamPoints 1 2 5335 2 5305 3 2 5305 4 2 5240 5 1 5110 6 1 5090 7 4910 8 4900 9 1 4845 10 1 4760 11 1 4755 12 1 4555 13 2 4375 14 4370 15 2 4350 16 2 4295 17 2 4275 18 2 4260 19 3 3995 20 1 3965Women'sRankChange*TeamPoints 1 5460 2 5400 3 1 5125 4 1 5100 5 2 5090 6 1 4980 7 1 4840 8 1 4805 9 4545 10 4510 11 3 4460 12 1 4455 13 4400 14 2 4365 15 2 4245 16 4210 17 2 4190 18 3960 19 3910 20 3875 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. Russia's men team has more points overall in the men's rankings but is excluded from the list due to its ongoing suspension from IIHF competition.
Description The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2003. 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".
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.
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, 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:
Competition Valuationcoefficient 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% 0Counts five tournaments from four latest years5600
Men's rankings
The current men's ranking (as of June 2026) is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2026, 2025, 2024, and 2023, and at the Olympic ice hockey tournament of 2026. In the upcoming May 2027 rankings, points from the 2027 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships will be added and points from the 2023 World Championship will be dropped.
Russia and Belarus were expelled from competing in all World Championships since 2022 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: in 2022, 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.
The following table lists the full breakdown of ranking following the 2026 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. Jun2026RankFeb2026RankTeamWC2026(—)(100%)OLY2026(100%)(100%)WC2025(100%)(75%)WC2024(75%)(50%)WC2023(50%)(25%)WC2022(25%)(0%)June2026Total+/−Feb2026Total+/− Expelled 1600 1600 1560 1520 1520 1120 5510 5340 1 3 1560 1460 1560 1560 1460 1060 5335 5185 2 2 1500 1560 1460 1500 1600 1160 5305 5235 3 1 1400 1600 1600 1460 1500 1100 5305 5320 4 6 1600 1520 1420 1400 1420 1200 5240 5040 5 4 1420 1420 1520 1520 1440 1040 5100 5060 6 5 1460 1400 1440 1600 1400 1120 5090 5020 7 7 1340 1440 1360 1440 1560 1020 4910 4915 8 8 1360 1500 1320 1420 1360 1000 4900 4815 9 10 1440 1340 1340 1360 1520 940 4845 4695 10 9 1300 1360 1500 1280 1340 960 4760 4730 11 12 1520 1280 1300 1320 1280 880 4755 4430 12 11 1320 1200 1400 1340 1260 920 4555 4465 13 15 1280 1240 1280 1180 1220 800 4375 4215 14 14 1200 1260 1240 1300 1320 860 4370 4350 15 13 1160 1320 1220 1260 1300 900 4350 4360 16 18 1240 1300 1180 1160 1160 840 4295 4140 17 19 1260 1160 1260 1200 1240 780 4275 4135 Expelled 1200 1220 1220 1240 1260 860 4270 4215 18 16 1220 1220 1200 1240 1200 820 4260 4155 19 22 1180 1140 1160 1080 1060 660 3995 3805 20 19 1140 1080 1120 1220 1180 700 3965 3880 21 20 1100 1180 1140 1120 1080 680 3965 3870 22 21 1040 1120 1100 1140 1120 720 3835 3815 23 24 1120 1060 1080 1060 1100 760 3795 3675 24 23 1020 1100 1060 1100 1140 740 3750 3740 25 25 1080 1020 1040 1040 1020 640 3655 3510 26 26 1060 1040 1020 1020 1040 600 3635 3495 27 27 1000 1000 1000 1000 960 540 3490 3365 28 28 980 960 960 980 1000 580 3400 3300 29 30 960 940 980 960 940 560 3350 3250 30 29 940 980 940 940 980 620 3340 3270 31 31 800 920 820 860 880 480 2985 2945 32 36 860 900 840 800 0 460 2790 2455 33 32 780 820 780 780 800 420 2775 2690 34 33 740 880 760 760 720 300 2750 2645 35 34 720 840 680 740 760 340 2630 2540 36 35 640 800 740 720 660 220 2520 2465 37 37 660 860 660 640 680 240 2505 2400 38 39 920 — 920 920 840 360 2280 2900 39 38 880 — 880 880 920 560 2210 2140 40 41 900 — 900 840 820 440 2200 2050 41 40 840 — 860 900 900 520 2160 2115 42 42 820 — 800 820 780 440 2025 1915 43 44 760 — 720 700 600 160 1800 2345 44 43 620 — 700 660 700 320 1650 1625 45 46 700 — 600 620 740 400 1645 1535 46 47 680 — 640 600 580 200 1605 2150 47 46 540 — 620 680 640 280 1505 1520 48 48 560 — 560 560 560 220 1400 2055 49 52 580 — 580 580 360 1305 1105 50 51 520 — 540 480 460 — 1280 1130 51 49 500 — 520 540 480 100 1280 1190 52 50 480 — 500 520 540 120 1250 1190 53 54 440 — 440 460 440 80 1100 1725 54 53 400 — 400 500 520 140 1080 1750 55 56 420 — 420 440 420 — 1060 960 56 55 380 — 380 420 500 100 1000 970 57 57 600 — 480 — — — 960 480 58 58 460 — 460 — — — 805 460 NR NR — — — — — — — — NR NR — — — — — — — —
Women's rankings
The current women's ranking (as of April 2025) is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022, and at the Olympic ice hockey tournament of 2022. In the upcoming February 2026 rankings, points from the 2026 Olympic tournament will be added and points from the 2022 Olympics will be dropped.
The following table lists the ranking following the 2025 Women's Ice Hockey World Championships. and the calculations of the rankings following the 2026 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.