FIFA Women's World Ranking

Last updated

Top 20 rankings as of 7 August 2025 [1]
RankChangeTeamPoints
1Increase2.svg 1Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 2066.79
2Decrease2.svg 1Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2065.06
3Increase2.svg 3Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2025.26
4Increase2.svg 1Flag of England.svg  England 2022.64
5Decrease2.svg 2Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 2011.56
6Increase2.svg 4Flag of France.svg  France 1988.68
7Decrease2.svg 3Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1976.3
8Decrease2.svg 1Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1971.05
9Decrease2.svg 1Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1967.83
10Increase2.svg 1Flag of North Korea.svg  North Korea 1944.22
11Steady2.svgFlag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1899.18
12Increase2.svg 1Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1884.32
13Increase2.svg 3Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1861.98
14Decrease2.svg 2Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1848.31
15Steady2.svgFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 1835.34
16Increase2.svg 1Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1807.34
17Decrease2.svg 3Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 1804.32
18Steady2.svgFlag of Colombia.svg  Colombia 1796.71
19Steady2.svgFlag of Austria.svg  Austria 1794.41
20Steady2.svgFlag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1788.87
*Change from 12 June 2025
*Next change on 11 December 2025
Complete rankings at FIFA.com

The FIFA Women's World Ranking is a ranking system for women's national teams in association football (commonly known as football or soccer) published by the international governing body FIFA. As of August 2025, the Spain national team is ranked number one.

Contents

The rankings were introduced in 2003, [2] with the first rankings published on 16 July of that year. [3] [4] FIFA attempts to assess the strength of internationally active women's national teams at any given time based on their past game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. As of July 2025, the ranking has 196 national teams.

The ranking has more than informative value, as it is often used to seed member associations into different pots in international tournaments.

Specifics of the ranking system

The first two points result from the FIFA Women's World Rankings system being based on the Elo rating system adjusted for football; in 2018, FIFA modified the men's ranking system to similarly be based on Elo systems after continued criticism. FIFA considers the ratings for teams with fewer than 5 matches provisional and at the end of the list. In addition, any team that plays no matches for 4 years becomes unranked; this inactivity limit was previously 18 months, but was extended in early 2021 (after the COVID-19 pandemic stifled a significant amount of international play).

Ranking calculations

The rankings are based on the following formulae: [2]

Where

= The team rating after the match
= The team rating before the match
= , the weighted importance of the match
= The actual result of the match, see below
= The expected result of the match
= The scaled difference in rating points between the teams
= The opposing team's rating before the match
= The "home advantage" correction, see below
= A scaling factor, see below
= The "Match Importance Factor", see below

The average points of all teams are about 1300 points. The top nations usually exceed 2000 points. In order to be ranked, a team must have played at least more than 5 matches against officially ranked teams, and have not been inactive for the last 48 months up to the date the rankings are published. Even if teams are not officially ranked, their points rating is kept constant until they play their next match.

Actual result of the match

The main component of the actual result is whether the team wins, loses, or draws, but goal difference is also taken into account.

If the match results in a winner and loser, the loser is awarded a percentage given by the accompanying table, with the result always less than or equal to 20% (for goal differences greater than zero). The result is based on the goal difference and the number of goals they scored. The remaining percentage points are awarded to the winner. For example, a 2–1 match has the result awarded 84%–16% respectively, a 4–3 match has the result awarded 82%–18%, and an 5–3 match has the result awarded 96.2%–3.8%. As such, it is possible for a team to lose points even if they win a match, assuming they did not "win by enough".

If the match ends in a draw the teams are awarded the same result, but the number depends on the goals scored so the results will not necessarily add up to 100%. For example, a 0–0 draw earns both teams 47% each, a 1–1 draw earns 50% each, and a 4–4 draw earns 52.5% each. [2]

Goal Difference
0123456 /+
Goals scored
by non winning team
Actual result (percentage)
047.0 / 47.085.0 / 15.092.0 / 8.096.0 / 4.097.0 / 3.098.0 / 2.099.0 / 1.0
150.0 / 50.084.0 / 16.091.1 / 8.995.2 / 4.896.3 / 3.797.4 / 2.698.5 / 1.5
251.0 / 51.083.0 / 17.090.2 / 9.894.4 / 5.695.6 / 4.496.8 / 3.298.0 / 2.0
352.0 / 52.082.0 / 18.089.3 / 10.793.6 / 6.494.9 / 5.196.2 / 3.897.5 / 2.5
452.5 / 52.581.0 / 19.088.4 / 11.692.8 / 7.294.2 / 5.895.6 / 4.497.0 / 3.0
553.0 / 53.080.0 / 20.087.5 / 12.592.0 / 8.093.5 / 6.595.0 / 5.096.5 / 3.5

Source: [2]

Neutral ground or home field advantage

Historically, home teams earn 66% of the points available to them, with away teams earning the other 34%. To account for this, when two teams are not playing on neutral ground, the home team has its inflated by 100 points for the purposes of calculation. That is, if two equally ranked teams playing at one team's home ground, the home team would be expected to win at the same rate a team playing on neutral ground with a 100-point advantage. This 100 point difference corresponds to a 64%–36% advantage in terms of expected result. The scaling factor remains the same (c=200). [2]

Importance of the match

Match importanceMatch importance
factor (M)
K-value
FIFA Women's World Cup match460
Women's Olympic football tournament 460
FIFA Women's World Cup qualifier 345
Women's Olympic football qualifier345
Women's Continental finals match345
Women's Continental qualifier230
Women's friendly match between two Top 10 teams230
Women's friendly match115

Ranking schedule

Rankings are generally published four times a year. The next update is scheduled for 11 December 2025. [5]

Leaders

As of the 7 August 2025 rankings release, Spain is the number one ranked team.

The United States holds the record for the longest consecutive period leading the rankings of nearly 7 years, from March 2008 to December 2014.

Before the 2023 World Cup, the United States and Germany had been the only two teams to lead the women's rankings, and these two teams also had held the top two spots in all but six releases, when Germany was ranked third (only Norway, Brazil, England and Sweden had reached second during this time).

No.TeamConfederationDays at No. 1
1Flag of the United States.svg  United States CONCACAF6,070 days
2Flag of Germany.svg  Germany UEFA1,701 days
3Flag of Spain.svg  Spain UEFA248 days [note 1]
4Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden UEFA112 days
  1. Current leader as of 9 August 2025.

See also

References

  1. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 7 August 2025. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Fact Sheet, FIFA Women's World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  3. "FIFA launches Women's World Ranking". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 16 July 2003. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  4. "U.S. tops first women's world soccer rankings". The Honolulu Advertiser . Associated Press. 17 July 2003. p. D5. Retrieved 6 July 2019 via Newspapers.com. Lock-green.svg
  5. "Latest Women's World Ranking". Fifa.com. 21 January 2025. Retrieved 21 January 2025.