IIHF World Ranking

The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the national teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The system was approved by the IIHF congress in 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. Since the women have no World Championship in the year of the Olympics, the women's world ranking is based only on the last three World Championships and the Olympic 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 2013 a men's team had won the gold medal in the last four championships and the last Olympic tournament their score would be 3300:

If in 2013 a women's team had won the gold medal in the last three championships and the last Olympic tournament their score would be 3000:

Effects
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 can participate without qualification. 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 the Pre-qualification in November 2012. The winner of each Pre-qualification group and teams ranked 10-18 were divided in three groups to play the Final Qualification in February 2013. The three winners of the Final Qualification will join 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 Fall 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 2014 post-Olympic ranking is based on the performance at World Championship of 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010, and at the 2014 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Sochi, Russia. For all years the points received is the shown at their full value. The "Total" column is the countries score after the previous years have been depreciated by their respected value. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.

Eight nations have achieved a top ten ranking every year between 2003–2013, they are: Canada, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, the United States, Slovakia, and Switzerland. An additional four nations, Germany (8 years), Latvia (6 years), Belarus (5 years), and Norway (3 years) have been in the top ten at least once. As of early 2014, three countries have accomplished a first place ranking; Canada, Sweden and Russia with four years each. Only Sweden has achieved a top four ranking every year.

The following table lists the standings after the Sochi Olympics.

Women's rankings
The Women's 2014 ranking is based on the performance at the World Championships of 2013, 2012, and 2011 and at the 2014 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in Sochi, Russia. For all years the points received is the shown at their full value. The "Total" column is the countries score after the previous years have been depreciated by their respected value. A dash in a tournament column indicates that the country did not participate.

Only six nations have achieved a top ten ranking every year between 2003–2014, they are: Canada, the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Switzerland. An additional seven nations, Germany (11 years), Kazakhstan (10 years), Japan (10 years), China (9 years), Slovakia (5 years), Czech Republic (2 years), and Norway (1 year) have been in the top ten at least once. Canada (9) and United States (3) are the only countries to have accomplished a first place ranking as well as the only two to achieve a top two ranking every year.

1Japan withdrew from 2011 competition due to force majeure, and was thus granted the points of last place in their division.