After having won gold at the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Canada moves up to first place in the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Ranking overtaking second-ranked Finland.
 
The IIHF World Ranking takes into consideration the performances during the past four years at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and the Olympic Winter Games, and is calculated on an annual basis to determine the seedings of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, the Olympic ice hockey tournaments and qualification.
 
Russia and the United States remain in third and fourth place respectively while Germany is the big winner among the top nations. After having earned the silver medals at the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, the Germans improve from ninth to fifth place. Since the introduction of the IIHF World Ranking in 2004, the Germans have never ranked higher than fifth place, which they also held in 2021.
 
Sweden drops down  one place to sixth  while Switzerland remains seventh. Czechia lost two spots and comes in eighth place, the country’s lowest IIHF Men’s World Ranking position ever. Slovakia goes down one position to ninth while bronze medallist Latvia climbs up by one position to complete the top-10 at the expense of Denmark.
 
The 2023 IIHF Men’s World Ranking includes a record number of 58 countries following the return of Mongolia and the first-time participation of Indonesia. Scroll down for the full ranking.

Canada also leads IIHF Women’s World Ranking

Canada does not only lead in men’s but also in women’s ice hockey. Despite the loss in the recent 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship gold medal game to the United States, Canada defends first place but the point margin to the United States has decreased.
 
It’s the first time since 2015 that Canada, or any nation, has led both the Men’s and Women’s World Ranking in the same year.
 
Switzerland moves up to third place at the expense of Finland while Czechia comes in fifth place swapping positions with Russia. It’s the highest position ever for the Czechs, who became historic back to back bronze medal winners last month.
 
Since the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship program hasn’t been completed yet – the Division I Group A in Shenzhen, China will take place from 20 to 26 August – the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Ranking hasn’t been released yet. However, the top-10 countries of the ranking have already become known:

1		CANADA	4250
2		USA	4220
3		SWITZERLAND	3965
4		FINLAND	3920
5		CZECHIA	3890
6		RUSSIA	3885
7		JAPAN	3775
8		SWEDEN	3665
9		GERMANY	3515
10		HUNGARY	3515

Tentative groups for 2024

With the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Ranking established, the tentative groups for the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Prague and Ostrava, Czechia have been created. The groups are tentative and minor changes for organizational reasons may apply. The final groups and the game schedule will be announced during the upcoming months. Visit 2024.iihfworlds.com for more information about the event.
 

GROUP A	GROUP B
Ostrava	Prague
Canada	Finland
Germany	USA
Sweden	Switzerland
Slovakia	Czechia
Latvia	Denmark
France	Norway
Kazakhstan	Austria
Poland	Great Britain

 

Provisional data. Subject to changes.

The 2023 IIHF Men’s World Ranking

The rankings for Men and Women in the World Rankings section of the iihf.com web site will be updated in the next few days.
 

1	Canada	4150
2	Finland	4080
3	Russia	4050
4	USA	3940
5	Germany	3835
6	Sweden	3800
7	Switzerland	3775
8	Czechia	3735
9	Slovakia	3690
10	Latvia	3610
11	Denmark	3500
12	Norway	3270
13	France	3240
14	Belarus	3175
15	Kazakhstan	3170
16	Austria	3135
17	Slovenia	2990
18	Italy	2970
19	Hungary	2950
20	Great Britain	2945
21	Korea	2805
22	Poland	2790
23	Romania	2645
24	Lithuania	2630
25	Japan	2580
26	China	2535
27	Ukraine	2470
28	Estonia	2400
29	Netherlands	2285
30	Serbia	2245
31	Croatia	2170
32	Spain	2140
33	Israel	1950
34	Iceland	1925
35	Australia	1710
36	Bulgaria	1655
37	Mexico	1600
38	Türkiye	1585
39	United Arab Emirates	1505
40	Belgium	1470
41	Chinese Taipei	1455
42	New Zealand	1390
43	Luxembourg	1280
44	Thailand	1190
45	Turkmenistan	1140
46	Kyrgyzstan	1095
47	Hong Kong, China	1070
48	Bosnia & Herzegovina	1040
49	South Africa	1020
50	Kuwait	770
51	Singapore	650
52	Malaysia	635
53	Georgia	630
54	Iran	625
55	Philippines	600
56	DPR Korea	510
57	Mongolia	460
58	Indonesia	420