The FIVB World Rankings is a ranking system for men's and women's national teams in volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

. The teams of the member nations of FIVB, volleyball's world governing body, are ranked based on their competitions results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the importance of each FIVB International competitions and Continental competitions also. Under the existing system, rankings are based on a team's performance, with more recent results and more significant competitions being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team.

The ranking system was most recently revamped after the 2006 World League (for men) and 2006 Grand Prix (for women).

The rankings are used in international competitions to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools. Specific procedures for seeding and pooling are established by the FIVB in each competition's formula, but the method usually employed is the serpentine system

Serpentine system

The serpentine system is a method employed in the organization of a competition to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools. The n ranked teams that will be involved in the tournament are distributed in m pools according to the following algorithm:For instance, 12 teams would be organized...

.

Men

Top 30 Rankings as of October 2 2011
Rank	Change	Team	Points

}
|align=right|1
| align="center" rowspan=2| || || align="right"|220.0
|-
|align=right|2
| || align="right"|170.0
|-
|align=right|3
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|156.0
|-
|align=right|4
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|147.0
|-
|align=right|5
| align="center" rowspan=5| || || align="right"|142.5
|-
|align=right|6
| || align="right"|133.5
|-
|align=right|7
| || align="right"|112.5
|-
|align=right|8
| || align="right"|109.5
|-
|align=right|9
| || align="right"|102.5
|-
|align=right|10
| align="center"|2 || || align="right"|68.5
|-
|align=right|11
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|61.5
|-
|align=right|12
| align="center"|2 || || align="right"|57.5
|-
|align=right|13
| align="center"|4 || || align="right"|52.0
|-
|align=right|14
| align="center"|5 || || align="right"|50.5
|-
|align=right|15
| align="center"| || || align="right"|49.5
|-
|align=right|16
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|45.5
|-
|align=right|17
| align="center"|6 || || align="right"|44.0
|-
|align=right|18
| align="center"|5 || || align="right"|43.5
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|19
| align="center"|3 || || align="right" rowspan=2|42.5
|-
| align="center"|5 ||
|-
|align=right|21
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|40.5
|-
|align=right|22
| align="center"|1 || || align="right"|39.5
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|23
| align="center"|6 || || align="right" rowspan=2|39.0
|-
| align="center"|4 ||
|-
|align=right|25
| align="center"|5 || || align="right"|32.5
|-
|align=right|26
| align="center"| || || align="right"|29.5
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|27
| align="center"|2 || || align="right" rowspan=2|29.0
|-
| align="center"|6 ||
|-
|align=right|29
| align="center"|2 || || align="right"|27.0
|-
|align=right|30
| align="center"|7 || || align="right"|23.0
|}

Women

Top 30 Rankings as of November 18 2011
Rank	Change	Team	Points

}
|align=right|1
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|285.0
|-
|align=right|2
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|265.0
|-
|align=right|3
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|228.5
|-
|align=right|4
| align="center" |3 || || align="right"|217.5
|-
|align=right|5
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|198.0
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|6
| align="center" rowspan=2|2 || || align="right" rowspan=2|167.5
|-
||
|-
|align=right|8
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|121.5
|-
|align=right|9
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|94.0
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|10
| align="center" | || || align="right" rowspan=2|78.5
|-
| align="center" |4 ||
|-
|align=right|12
| align="center" rowspan=3|1 || || align="right"|69.5
|-
|align=right|13
| || align="right"|68.5
|-
|align=right|14
| || align="right"|63.0
|-
|align=right|15
| align="center" | || || align="right"|56.5
|-
|align=right|16
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|53.5
|-
|align=right|17
| align="center" |1 || || align="right"|49.5
|-
|align=right|18
| align="center" |2 || || align="right"|42.0
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|19
| align="center" rowspan=2|1 || || align="right" rowspan=2|39.0
|-
||
|-
|align=right|21
| align="center" rowspan=10| || || align="right"|32.5
|-
|align=right|22
| || align="right"|31.5
|-
| align="right" rowspan=2|23
| || align="right" rowspan=2|30.0
|-
|
|-
|align=right|25
| || align="right"|28.5
|-
|align=right|26
| || align="right"|25.5
|-
|align=right|27
| || align="right"|25.0
|-
|align=right|28
| || align="right"|24.0
|-
|align=right|29
| || align="right"|22.5
|-
|align=right|30
| || align="right"|22.0
|}

Boys

Boys' Volleyball Top 30 Rankings as of August 29 2011
Rank	Change	Team	Points
1	4		252
2	1		246
3			190
4			178
5	6		158
6			141
	3
8	4		136
9	6		102
10	5		99
11	1		74
12	4		71
13	6		70
14	4		65
15	2		54
16	21		51
17	3		50
18	1		46
19	4		44
22	1		35
23	13		33
24	2		32
26			28
28	1		24
29			20
30			19

Girls

Girls' Volleyball Top 30 Rankings as of August 22 2011
Rank	Change	Team	Points
1	12		226
2	1		200
3			195
4	8		171
5			144
6	3		136
7	4		128
8			127
9	20		112
10	4		104
11			96
12	5		86
13	3		81
14	14		80
15	4		70
16	6		54
17	1		52
18	2		51
	1
20	6		48
21			39
22			32
	1		32
	3
25	10		28
	2
27	16		26
28	4		25
29	1		20
30			19

World Tournaments

FIVB Tournaments
Finish	World Championship	Olympic Games	World Cup	World League (Men) World Grand Prix (Women)	Continental Championship
1st	100	100	100	50	30
2nd	90	90	90	45	26
3rd	80	80	80	40	22
4th	70	70	70	35	18
5th	62	45	50	30	14
6th	56		40	25	10
7th	50		30	15	5
8th	45		25	12
9th	40	15	5	10	3
10th	36			8
11th	33	5		7
12th	30			6
13th	25			4	2
14th				3
15th				2
16th				1
17th-24th	20

FIVB Tournaments' Qualifying Rounds

World Championship Qualifying Tournament
Finish	Points
Playoffs	10-15
Third Round	12
Second Round	8-11
First Round	5-8

Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Finish	Points
Continental/World 1st	3
Continental/World 2nd	2
Continental/World 3rd	1
World 4th-5th	1

Continental Qualifying Tournament (NORCECA and Europe only)
Finish	Points
Preliminary Round	1

The points obtained by a team in the World Championship, World Cup, Olympic Games and their qualifying tournaments will be reduced 50% after two years the tournament was played.

The points obtained by a team in the Continetal Championship will be reduced 50% one year after the tournament was played.