In the FIFA Women’s World Ranking, teams are ranked based on their actual strength, measured by a value called rating points. These points can provide valuable insights about a team’s strength. For instance, if a team faces their opponents in a knock-out match on neutral ground and has 72 rating points more, their chances of advancing to the next round are 60%.
Last Update on June 12 2025: FIFA released their new Women’s Ranking (next update on August 7 2025).
The USA is still in first place and Brazil climbed to 4th place. Here are some highlights:
- The USA is the Number 1.
- Biggest climber: Egypt with 7 places.
- New Highest Rank: Colombia at 18th place.
- Biggest drop: UAE dropped 5 places.
| Ranking | Country | Points |
| 1 |  USA | 2057.19 |
| 2 |  Spain | 2034.34 |
| 3 |  Germany | 2030.88 |
| 4 |  Brazil | 2004.31 |
| 5 |  England | 1999.78 |
| 6 |  Sweden | 1989.21 |
| 7 |  Japan | 1982.51 |
| 8 |  Canada | 1974.46 |
| 9 |  Korea DPR | 1944.23 |
| 10 |  France | 1941.61 |
FIFA Women’s World Ranking – Why?
- Promotion of the Women’s Game
- Realistic Assessment: Putting Everyone in their Place
- Statistical Analysis of the state of the Women’s Game
- Equal Importance of Women’s and Men’s Football
- Solid foundation: some 3000 games since 1971
Although some math is involved, the system used is easy to understand. It allows everyone to follow the teams’ movements and even calculate the ranking. Women’s international football matches have been taking place for over 30 years. The first one being held on April 17, 1971, when France played against the Netherlands. This has allowed for comprehensive data collection on international women’s football.
FIFA Women’s World Ranking – Key Criteria
- Result of the Match
- Home vs away, or neutral ground
- Importance of the match
- Difference in WWR between the teams
Basics of the Ranking method
The basic formula of the WWR:
WWR,new = WWR,old + ( Actual – Predicted )
The result of a team’s match is converted into a value: “Actual”. Via some formulae, the difference in rating points (strength) results in a “Predicted” value.
Should the “Actual” value be better, then the new WWR will be higher than the old one. This is fair, as the team will have delivered more than was expected. The underachiever loses the same amount of rating points as their opponents have won. Meaning: their “Predicted” result is greater than their “Actual” result, i.e. they have not done as well as expected.
One conclusion that can be drawn from this basic rule is that the rating points earned by a team for a win is dependent on the strength of the opponent. A win over an extremely weak team scarcely improves their standing in the WWR, while a win over a stronger team is awarded with a clear increase of the WWR value.
Actual Result of the Match
Winning or losing of course is the most important criteria, but goal difference and goals scored are also taken into account as is shown in the following table.
Neutral ground or Home vs. Away
To correct the value for a home advantage, the rating points of the Home team are enhanced by a value “H”. A glance at the historical results shows that teams perform better at home than away; the home teams keep 66% of the points, while the opponents return home with 34%. To neutralise this effect, a correction is made by enhancing the rating of the home team by a value of 100 points (corresponding to 64%).
Importance of the match
In friendly matches, the teams representing their countries are not necessarily the best a country has to offer. Whilst it is clear that in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final two “ultimate” teams will appear. As a result, matches held at important (qualification) tournaments are a more precise measure of the strength of a team than a friendly. This element is taken into account by introducing the Match Importance “M” factor.
For matches during the FIFA Women’s World Cup final tournament, this factor is four times bigger than the value of friendly matches. For World Cup qualifying matches the difference is a factor of three. So, at major competitions, a lot more rating points can be earned and lost.
However, friendly matches between the top 10 ranked teams are considered more important due to their prestige. They are also a better indicator of the teams’ strength. As a result, these matches are given double the importance of regular friendlies.
Difference in Rating Points
The scaled difference in rating points between the two opponents “x” (x = [r1 – r2] / scaling factor) is used to predict the result of the match. The formula used to do so is of the form: P (x) = 1 / [1 + 10 ( x / 2 ) ]
For each team the prediction match percentage “P” is expressed in a value between 0 and 1 as a function of the difference in scaled rating points “x”.
The scaling factor is chosen in such a way that the very best in the world can have rating points exceeding 2000. While the absolute beginners score around 1000 rating points.
source: FIFA.com