IIHF World Ranking (WFAC)

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. As of 2016, the current leader in rankings is Canada in men's play.

The system was approved at the IIHF congress of September 2000.

Calculation
Only IIHF tournaments (and tournaments sanctioned by the IIHF) are used in calculations for the tournaments. Other tournaments, such as invitationals and friendlies are not included.

Events' weights
Each IIHF event has a weight, partly based on the strength of the various national teams participating:

Competition ranking points
The world ranking is based on the final positions of the last two regional championships (the North America Cup, European and Asian Oceanic Championship), and the last Ice Hockey World Championships and Olympic ice hockey tournament. Points are assigned according to a team's final placement in the regional championship, 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 2016 a European or North American team had won the gold medal in the last four regional and world championships and the last Olympic tournament their score would be 4800:

Example
Sweden's 3750.0 points were calculated by this method: