FIFA Women's World Rankings

• FIFA Women's World Rankings are based on every international match a team ever played, dating back to 1971, the first FIFA-recognized women's international between France and the Netherlands.
• FIFA Women's World Rankings are implicitly weighted to emphasize recent results.
• FIFA Women's World Rankings are only published four times a year. Normally, rankings are released in March, June, September and December. (In World Cup years, dates may be adjusted to reflect the World Cup results.)

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 18 months becomes unranked.

FIFA Women's
World Ranking leaders

To date the United States and Germany have been the only two teams to lead the women's rankings. They have also held the top two spots in all but five releases, when Germany was ranked third: Norway was in second position in the first two rankings until Germany overtook them by winning the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, Brazil was ranked second in March and June 2009 until Germany won 2009 Euro and rejoined the top two, and England reached the second ranking in March 2018.

The United States holds the record for the longest consecutive period leading the rankings of nearly 7 years, from March 2008 to December 2014. As of early March 2020, the United States has led for a total of 12 years, Germany for 4½ years, and the two jointly led for ¼ year.

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

${\displaystyle R_{aft}=R_{bef}+K(S_{act}-S_{exp})}$

${\displaystyle S_{exp}={\frac {1}{1+10^{-x/2}}}}$

${\displaystyle x={\frac {R_{bef}-O_{bef}\pm H}{c}}}$

Where

${\displaystyle R_{aft}}$	= The team rating after the match
${\displaystyle R_{bef}}$	= The team rating before the match
${\displaystyle K}$	= ${\displaystyle 15M}$, the weighted importance of the match
${\displaystyle S_{act}}$	= The actual result of the match, see below
${\displaystyle S_{exp}}$	= The expected result of the match
${\displaystyle x}$	= The scaled difference in rating points between the teams
${\displaystyle O_{bef}}$	= The opposing team's rating before the match
${\displaystyle H}$	= The "home advantage" correction, see below
${\displaystyle c}$	= A scaling factor, see below
${\displaystyle M}$	= 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 5 matches against officially ranked teams, and have not been inactive for more than 18 months. Even if teams are not officially ranked, their points rating is kept constant until they play their next match.

Rankings are published four times a year, usually on a Friday.[5]

• Elo football rating
• FIFA Men's World Rankings
• Statistical association football predictions
• Geography of women's association football

• FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking at FIFA.com
• Women's World Ranking Procedure at FIFA.com
• Women’s World Ranking Fact Sheet