The teams of the member nations of the International Rugby League, rugby league football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest.
The IRL World Rankings are calculated based on an average of points accumulated by each nation over a three-year cycle.
Under the structure, matches deemed of higher importance such as World Cup games, Four Nations and other major tournament finals draw more points than mid-season Tests and other ‘Internationals’.
Nations which have played fewer than 5 matches over a three-year cycle will be penalised under the current point structure.
All matches played over the last three years are included in the calculation of the rankings, but there is a weighting system implemented to put more emphasis on recent results.