Ice Hockey World Championships
Nation Group ( 2020 ) IIHF Ranking ( as of December 2019 ) Member of IIHF since Member of division since
Canada Group A 1 1920 1951
Czech Republic Group A 5 1908 1993
Denmark Group A 12 1946 2003
Finland Group B 3 1928 1951
Germany Group A 7 1909 2007
Great Britain Group A 20 1908 2019
Italy Group B 16 1924 2019
Latvia Group B 10 1931 1997
Norway Group B 11 1935 2006
Russia Group B 2 1952 1992
Slovakia Group A 9 1993 1996
Sweden Group A 4 1912 1951
Switzerland Group B 8 1908 1998
United States Group B 6 1920 1985
Belarus Group A 14 1992 2020
Kazakhstan Group B 19 1992 2020
Divisions -- Championship
See also : List of IIHF World Championship medalists The Championship division comprises the top sixteen hockey nations in the world . The 83rd championship was held from 10 to 26 May 2019 , in Bratislava and Košice , Slovakia . [ 129 ] Teams that will take part in 2020 : Table updated 25/12/19
The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. From 1920 to 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year. The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930 in which twelve nations participated. In 1931, ten teams played a series of round-robin format qualifying rounds to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. In 1951, thirteen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other six (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. This basic format would be used until 1992 (although small variations were made).