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On the heels of a successful title defence at the Women’s Worlds, the United States move onto the top of the ranking at the expense of silver medallist Canada, which is now ranked second.

Finland retains third position while Russia moved up from sixth to fourth place after its bronze-medal win in Kamloops to earn direct qualification for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Sweden stayed in fifth place and has also qualified, along with the other top-5 teams of the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Ranking, Olympic host Korea, and two qualifiers that will be determined in various tournaments next season.

Switzerland fell down two places and is now sixth, thus missing an automatic spot in PyeongChang 2018. Japan moved up one place to seventh at the expense of Germany. The two top-seeded teams in the Olympic Qualification, Switzerland and Japan, will have the right to host one of the two groups of the Final Olympic Qualification to be held in February 2017. The groups and hosts will be determined during the 2016 IIHF Annual Congress.

The 2016 IIHF Women’s World Ranking includes 38 countries that have participated in the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Program, the Olympic Winter Games and/or Olympic Qualification during the last four hockey seasons between 2013 and 2016.