USA stays first in World Ranking
by Martin Merk|01 SEP 2021
Despite the loss in the gold medal game the United States stay on top of the IIHF Women’s World Ranking.
photo: Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images
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The International Ice Hockey Federation has released the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Ranking following the end of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Calgary, Canada and determined the groups for the next Women’s Worlds.

In the ranking, which takes into account the results from four years (2018-2021), the United States stay on top and in front of archrival Canada. The ranking continues in the same order with bronze medallist Finland third, Russia/ROC fourth and Switzerland fifth, who will all play in Group A in the next Women’s Worlds following their top-5 finish in Calgary.

The most significant move was made by Hungary, which improved from 12th to 10th place thanks to getting promoted to the top division and finishing there in ninth place.

The 2021 IIHF Women’s World Ranking includes a record number of 42 countries that have been entered in the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship program for this year.

For points in 2021 the ranking took into consideration the placement of the ten teams participating in the Women’s Worlds. Same as the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Ranking released in June, the points for teams from lower divisions affected by a tournament cancellation 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 as it was decided recently by the IIHF Council for a fairer ranking and point distribution during the pandemic.

Groups known, discussions for Women’s Worlds in 2022

The IIHF Council made a proposal to its membership to play the top-level IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship also in Olympic years, however, to avoid having two big tournaments within just two or three months, the Women’s Worlds in Olympic years would take place in August rather than spring. Click here for more information.

If the proposal will be accepted by the delegates at the 2021 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in three weeks, the next IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship would take place in August 2022 and the groups based on the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Ranking would look as follows:
Group A Group B
USA (1) Japan (6)
Canada (2) Czech Republic (7)
Finland (3) Germany (8)
ROC (4) Hungary (9)
Switzerland (5) Denmark (10)

In case of an approval, the venue of the event would also be determined by the 2021 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress.

2021 IIHF Women's World Ranking

Rank Country Points  Movement
1 USA 3260 0
2 Canada 3210 0
3 Finland 3100 0
4 Russia 2985 0
5 Switzerland 2955 0
6 Japan 2840 0
7 Czech Republic 2795 0
8 Germany 2740 0
9 Sweden 2640 0
10 Hungary 2560 +2
11 Denmark 2555 0
12 France 2535 -2
13 Norway 2425 0
14 Austria 2385 0
15 Slovakia 2305 0
16 Italy 2250 +1
17 Korea 2230 -1
18 Netherlands 2155 0
19 Poland 2070 +1
20 China 2045 -1
21 Kazakhstan 2000 0
22 Latvia 1955 0
23 Slovenia 1860 +1
24 Great Britain 1825 -1
25 Spain 1760 0
26 Mexico 1710 0
27 DPR Korea 1520 +1
28 Turkey 1485 -1
29 Australia 1435 0
30 Chinese Taipei 1400 0
31 Iceland 1325 0
32 New Zealand 1295 0
33 Croatia 1200 +2
34 Hong Kong, China 1155 -1
35 Romania 1095 -1
36 South Africa 1060 +1
37 Belgium 1040 -1
38 Ukraine 945 +1
39 Bulgaria 925 -1
40 Lithuania 610 0
41 Estonia 320 NEW
42 Bosnia & Herzegovina 300 NEW