FIFA Rankings Per Capita

One of the main flaws in measuring the strength of the best international football teams in the world is that countries vary enormously in population size. Larger nations naturally enjoy an advantage because they have a much bigger pool of potential players to choose from, making it easier to discover world-class talent. Smaller countries, on the other hand, must compete with far fewer resources and a limited talent base, yet some still manage to perform impressively on the global stage.

To highlight this imbalance, the following list takes a different approach: instead of simply showing the official FIFA World Rankings, it adjusts performance by looking at FIFA ranking points per capita. This method attempts to factor out the population advantage, offering a fairer way to compare how efficiently each nation converts its people into footballing success. While this table is not presented as a definitive or flawless system, it does provide a unique perspective on which football teams are truly punching above their weight and which may be underperforming relative to their size. For fans and analysts alike, it offers valuable insight into international football rankings from a fresh angle.

There now follows a listing of the current FIFA world rankings per capita for August 2025.

Rank	FIFA Rank	Country	Points	Population	Per Head
1	179	Montserrat	917	5,000	0.183400
2	189	Cook Islands	878	18,000	0.048778
3	209	Anguilla	759	16,000	0.047438
4	208	British Virgin Islands	769	32,000	0.024031
5	210	San Marino	738	31,448	0.023467
6	141	Faroe Islands	1,090	49,469	0.022034
7	206	Turks and Caicos Islands	804	46,000	0.017478
8	187	American Samoa	883	56,000	0.015768
9	162	Bermuda	1,000	64,000	0.015625
10	174	Andorra	954	79,218	0.012043
11	163	Antigua and Barbuda	992	93,000	0.010667
12	197	Cayman Islands	853	82,000	0.010402
13	207	US Virgin Islands	780	87,000	0.008966
14	203	Seychelles	821	100,000	0.008210
15	194	Aruba	861	107,000	0.008047
16	198	Tonga	836	106,000	0.007887
17	86	Curacao	1,277	190,000	0.006721
18	202	Guam	823	165,124	0.004984
19	74	Iceland	1,338	301,931	0.004431
20	190	Samoa	876	225,000	0.003893
21	152	New Caledonia	1,040	290,000	0.003586
22	178	Barbados	920	280,946	0.003275
23	164	Vanuatu	992	330,000	0.003006
24	93	Equatorial Guinea	1,252	551,201	0.002271
25	73	Cape Verde	1,344	600,000	0.002240
26	89	Bahrain	1,267	586,000	0.002162
27	181	Belize	904	420,000	0.002152
28	77	Montenegro	1,327	621,383	0.002136
29	183	Brunei Darussalam	901	450,000	0.002002
30	205	Bahamas	807	410,000	0.001968
31	171	Maldives	966	520,000	0.001858
32	136	Suriname	1,100	630,000	0.001746
33	53	Qatar	1,460	885,359	0.001649
34	128	Cyprus	1,124	788,457	0.001426
35	149	Solomon Islands	1,046	750,000	0.001395
36	107	Comoros	1,199	900,000	0.001332
37	192	Macau	865	700,000	0.001236
38	101	Trinidad and Tobago	1,229	1,065,842	0.001153
39	186	Bhutan	889	790,000	0.001125
40	80	Gabon	1,307	1,384,000	0.000944
41	126	Estonia	1,131	1,325,000	0.000854
42	155	Swaziland	1,023	1,200,000	0.000853
43	71	Northern Ireland	1,351	1,710,300	0.000790
44	50	Slovenia	1,470	2,009,245	0.000732
45	177	Mauritius	922	1,296,000	0.000711
46	95	Kosovo	1,248	1,800,000	0.000693
47	62	North Macedonia	1,391	2,050,000	0.000679
48	123	Gambia	1,141	1,700,000	0.000671
49	195	East Timor	855	1,400,000	0.000611
50	31	Wales	1,529	2,903,085	0.000527
51	70	Jamaica	1,363	2,780,132	0.000490
52	16	Uruguay	1,671	3,431,932	0.000487
53	137	Latvia	1,099	2,259,810	0.000486
54	30	Panama	1,545	3,320,000	0.000465
55	108	Namibia	1,192	2,600,000	0.000458
56	148	Lesotho	1,046	2,300,000	0.000455
57	79	Oman	1,314	3,102,229	0.000424
58	135	Botswana	1,101	2,650,000	0.000415
59	105	Armenia	1,205	2,971,650	0.000405
60	68	Albania	1,373	3,600,523	0.000381
61	10	Croatia	1,708	4,494,749	0.000380
62	40	Costa Rica	1,494	4,075,261	0.000367
63	60	Republic of Ireland	1,413	4,062,235	0.000348
64	33	Norway	1,519	4,610,820	0.000329
65	82	New Zealand	1,289	4,115,771	0.000313
66	72	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,349	4,498,976	0.000300
67	143	Lithuania	1,069	3,575,439	0.000299
68	21	Denmark	1,621	5,450,661	0.000297
69	67	Georgia	1,375	4,646,003	0.000296
70	47	Scotland	1,475	5,062,011	0.000291
71	52	Slovakia	1,467	5,439,448	0.000270
72	69	Finland	1,372	5,231,372	0.000262
73	188	Mongolia	880	3,500,000	0.000251
74	138	Kuwait	1,099	4,500,000	0.000244
75	111	Mauritania	1,173	4,900,000	0.000239
76	154	Moldova	1,028	4,320,490	0.000238
77	43	Paraguay	1,487	6,506,464	0.000229
78	98	Palestine	1,236	5,450,000	0.000227
79	19	Switzerland	1,635	7,523,934	0.000217
80	112	Lebanon	1,172	5,400,000	0.000217
81	64	Jordan	1,388	6,459,000	0.000215
82	75	Israel	1,337	6,352,117	0.000210
83	117	Libya	1,155	5,551,000	0.000208
84	120	Togo	1,149	5,548,702	0.000207
85	87	El Salvador	1,273	6,365,000	0.000200
86	22	Austria	1,591	8,199,783	0.000194
87	66	Honduras	1,380	7,326,496	0.000188
88	134	Central African Republic	1,108	6,000,000	0.000185
89	84	Bulgaria	1,284	7,385,367	0.000174
90	29	Sweden	1,545	9,016,596	0.000171
91	8	Belgium	1,736	10,379,067	0.000167
92	6	Portugal	1,771	10,605,870	0.000167
93	140	Turkmenistan	1,092	6,600,000	0.000165
94	90	Haiti	1,261	8,300,000	0.000152
95	38	Hungary	1,501	9,981,334	0.000150
96	32	Serbia	1,523	10,150,265	0.000150
97	96	Benin	1,239	8,439,000	0.000147
98	49	Tunisia	1,471	10,175,014	0.000145
99	78	Bolivia	1,316	9,119,152	0.000144
100	39	Greece	1,498	10,688,058	0.000140
101	65	UAE	1,380	10,000,000	0.000138
102	41	Czechia	1,492	10,900,000	0.000137
103	18	Senegal	1,635	11,987,121	0.000136
104	81	Guinea	1,293	9,690,222	0.000133
105	124	Sierra Leone	1,140	8,900,000	0.000128
106	54	Mali	1,455	11,716,829	0.000124
107	106	Tajikistan	1,203	10,000,000	0.000120
108	97	Belarus	1,237	10,293,011	0.000120
109	185	Laos	890	7,600,000	0.000117
110	25	Ecuador	1,571	13,547,510	0.000116
111	83	Zambia	1,285	11,502,011	0.000112
112	127	Rwanda	1,125	10,186,063	0.000110
113	122	Azerbaijan	1,148	10,400,000	0.000110
114	7	Netherlands	1,758	16,491,461	0.000107
115	85	Angola	1,280	12,127,071	0.000106
116	63	Burkina Faso	1,388	13,228,000	0.000105
117	100	Guatemala	1,236	12,728,111	0.000097
118	142	Dominican Republic	1,077	11,400,000	0.000094
119	116	Zimbabwe	1,157	12,398,897	0.000093
120	57	Chile	1,442	16,134,219	0.000089
121	169	South Sudan	976	11,000,000	0.000089
122	166	Cuba	980	11,382,820	0.000086
123	51	Cameroon	1,467	17,340,702	0.000085
124	139	Burundi	1,093	13,000,000	0.000084
125	45	Côte d'Ivoire	1,483	17,654,843	0.000084
126	24	Australia	1,579	20,264,082	0.000078
127	48	Romania	1,474	22,303,552	0.000066
128	99	Mozambique	1,236	18,863,000	0.000066
129	91	Syria	1,261	19,405,000	0.000065
130	76	Ghana	1,333	22,409,572	0.000059
131	180	Cambodia	910	17,000,000	0.000054
132	129	Malawi	1,121	21,000,000	0.000053
133	46	Venezuela	1,477	27,730,469	0.000053
134	55	Uzbekistan	1,449	27,307,134	0.000053
135	42	Peru	1,490	28,302,603	0.000053
136	59	Saudi Arabia	1,415	27,019,731	0.000052
137	58	Iraq	1,417	27,499,638	0.000052
138	175	Chad	925	18,000,000	0.000051
139	12	Morocco	1,699	33,241,259	0.000051
140	28	Canada	1,549	31,413,990	0.000049
141	88	Uganda	1,269	25,827,000	0.000049
142	1	Argentina	1,885	39,921,833	0.000047
143	2	Spain	1,867	40,397,842	0.000046
144	36	Algeria	1,504	33,333,216	0.000045
145	121	Niger	1,148	27,700,000	0.000041
146	172	Taiwan	964	23,500,000	0.000041
147	37	Poland	1,502	38,536,869	0.000039
148	196	Sri Lanka	855	22,000,000	0.000039
149	14	Colombia	1,679	43,593,035	0.000039
150	115	Madagascar	1,163	30,500,000	0.000038
151	4	England	1,813	50,431,700	0.000036
152	125	Malaysia	1,138	34,000,000	0.000033
153	26	Ukraine	1,557	46,710,816	0.000033
154	109	Kenya	1,179	37,953,840	0.000031
155	110	Sudan	1,174	37,960,000	0.000031
156	23	South Korea	1,587	51,700,000	0.000031
157	3	France	1,862	60,876,136	0.000031
158	56	South Africa	1,443	47,432,000	0.000030
159	176	Nepal	923	30,500,000	0.000030
160	156	Yemen	1,021	34,000,000	0.000030
161	11	Italy	1,703	58,133,509	0.000029
162	161	Afghanistan	1,001	41,100,000	0.000024
163	20	Iran	1,624	68,688,433	0.000024
164	9	Germany	1,717	82,422,299	0.000021
165	146	Ethiopia	1,061	51,700,000	0.000021
166	102	Thailand	1,222	63,360,000	0.000019
167	34	Egypt	1,519	78,887,007	0.000019
168	27	Turkiye	1,553	85,600,000	0.000018
169	103	Tanzania	1,209	68,000,000	0.000018
170	13	Mexico	1,690	107,449,525	0.000016
171	61	DR Congo	1,412	103,000,000	0.000014
172	17	Japan	1,641	127,463,611	0.000013
173	113	Vietnam	1,170	100,000,000	0.000012
174	44	Nigeria	1,484	131,859,731	0.000011
175	35	Russia	1,519	142,893,540	0.000011
176	5	Brazil	1,778	188,078,227	0.000009
177	145	Philippines	1,066	117,000,000	0.000009
178	184	Bangladesh	899	173,000,000	0.000005
179	15	United States	1,671	334,000,000	0.000005
180	118	Indonesia	1,155	279,000,000	0.000004
181	201	Pakistan	829	245,000,000	0.000003
182	94	China PR	1,249	1,321,851,888	0.000001

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I believe that for this to make any sense at all one has to look at not just population but also the significance of what the nation has won. That being said, Uruguay is so far ahead of all others itâ€™s truly incredible.
By Richard on 30/03/2022

Haha. Even if China were #1 in the rankings they would _still_ be last on this list. I understand the idea this meant to convey, but the execution is naive.
On 30/03/2022

why only 118 countries???
By Eluwina on 17/09/2020

Where is India or even Pakistan or Bangladesh? I believe they would be even below China in the Points per Capita Ranking.
By The aggregated soccer world ra on 14/04/2020

FIFA Rankings Per Capita

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