The first two months of 2025 have witnessed some incredible hockey action with events across all tiers of international hockey. The list of tournaments included FIH Hockey Pro League action in three stages: Sydney, Australia; Bhubaneswar, India and Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Along with the Pro League, international hockey action was also running in parallel for teams in the next two tiers with the first edition of the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup 2 being played in Oman and the third edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s Nations Cup which came to an end on 2 March in Chile.

The unceasing hockey action created changes aplenty across the board as each win and loss amongst teams ranked close to each other led to movements up and down in the world rankings. Here is a look at the current world rankings table as on 4 March 2025:

In the women’s world rankings, Netherlands (3639) remain at the top of the rankings but a shoot-out loss to India in their final Pro League match in Bhubaneswar saw them drop over 50 points. The World and Olympic champions continue to hold a healthy lead over second placed Argentina (3223), who themselves are comfortably ahead of Belgium (3039) in third place.

The remaining teams in the Pro League are separated by less than 350 points from fourth to ninth place. Leading the pack are China (2734) in fourth place, followed by Australia (2696) in fifth, Germany (2662) in sixth, Spain (2583) in seventh, England (2440) in eighth and India (2391) in ninth.

The FIH Nations Cup in Chile further shook up the rankings below the top-9 competing in the FIH Pro League. In tenth place sit New Zealand (2177), further tightening their grip on a top-10 sport following their victory at the Nations Cup, with Ireland (2118) following closely behind after back-to-back runner up finishes at the event. Chile (2033) with consecutive third place finishes achieved their best ever world ranking as the twelfth ranked team, followed closely by Japan (2030) in thirteenth and United States (1946) in fourteenth. Scotland (1813) in fifteenth and Korea (1793) in sixteenth are placed close together. Canada (1549) who finished in the last place of the Nations Cup, have been overtaken by Italy (1583) for the seventeenth place.

In the men’s world rankings, Olympic champions Netherlands (3241) continue to lead the way following a solid start to their FIH Pro League campaign, but closing the gap rapidly are Belgium (3123) and England (3061) who also stand atop the Pro League table halfway through the season. Reigning world champions Germany (3053) find themselves in fourth, but within touching distance of a top three spot, followed by India (2978) in fifth.

Australia (2824), Spain (2716) and Argentina (2682) have made mixed starts to their Pro League campaigns and find themselves in the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the world rankings. In ninth place are France (2116), ahead of Ireland (2091) who are yet to register a win in the Pro League this season.

Following behind, from the eleventh to sixteenth spots, are South Africa (2082), New Zealand (2058), Malaysia (1970), Korea (1945), Pakistan (1942) and Japan (1851). These six teams, along with France ranked ninth and Wales (1793) ranked eighteenth, will play in the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup in Malaysia from 15-21 June 2025.

Following the first edition of the Men’s Nations Cup 2, Egypt (1830) were the biggest rank gainers, finding themselves in the seventeenth place. Austria (1774) are ranked nineteenth followed by gold medal winners at the event Scotland (1716), who have been promoted to the Nations Cup 2026, in twentieth. Remaining Nations Cup 2 teams, Canada (1688), China (1594), Chile (1534), Poland (1533) and USA (1475) round out the top-25 in the men’s world rankings.

To see the complete FIH World Rankings, please click here.

The rankings calculations model that FIH introduced on 1st January 2020 moved away from the previous tournament-based rankings system to a dynamic, match-based method where opposing teams exchange points in official, FIH sanctioned games. The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match. More information about the new rankings model can be found below.

How the FIH World Rankings work:

The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match.

FIH World Rankings explained:

  • Based on the Elo rating system, which is used as the basis of many other sports ranking systems
  • When two nations play against each other, a number of ranking points are exchanged between them
  • In every match, the number of points gained by one team is exactly matched by the number of points lost by the other
  • Teams will win more points for beating teams ranked above them, and therefore teams will lose more points for losing to a team ranked below them
  • Teams will win less points for beating teams ranked below them, and therefore teams will lose less points for losing to a team ranked above them
  • If a draw occurs, the lower ranked team will gain a small number of points and the higher ranked team will lose the same number of points
  • The number of points exchanged is dependent on the result of the match (win, lose, shootout win/loss or draw), the importance of the match (part of a major tournament, or a test series for example), and the relative difference in ranking points between the teams before the match.

More details about the formula used in the algorithm, weightings of matches and other factors can be found HERE together with a Frequently Asked Questions document HERE.