Ice hockey is growing worldwide according to the International Ice Hockey Federation's annual survey of players.

The IIHF published the results of their 2013 survey on Friday, pointing out that worldwide, the total number of hockey players from 2012 to 2013 has increased 2.47 percent. 1.64 million people in the world play organized hockey.

As you'd expect, Canada leads the world with a total of 625,152 registered ice hockey players. They lead in nearly every other category surveyed, too: players under 20, female players, number of officials and total number of rinks both indoor and outdoor. The one category Canada doesn't have the worldwide advantage is among senior players (those over 20 years old), where the United States holds the edge.

South Korea, which will host the 2018 Winter Olympics, saw a 28.73 percent growth in their total number of registered players according to the IIHF, and of their 2,106 players, 1,796 are under the age of 20.

The IIHF has a full breakdown of the numbers at their site. You can also play around with the data in our chart below, which you can sort by simply clicking any category. Here are some of the quirkier stats we found:

* One nation in the world has more female players than male players: North Korea. The DPRK has nearly as many female players as Russia, 515 to 562. Russia has 66,551 male players, though.

* Japan has more outdoor ice rinks than Finland. They have more than every country besides Canada, Russia and Sweden, actually.

* The USA and Canada have played head-to-head in every single gold medal game in Women's World Championship history, and that's not surprising: Combined, the two nations have 152,930 female players. The rest of the world combined? 26,442.

* Morocco, Malaysia, Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Andorra, Israel, and Thailand all have female players in organized hockey, but none of those nations have enough female players to ice a standard 20-to-23-woman team.

* 63,156 of Russia's 66,551 total players are under the age of 20. A lot of them are learning hockey on outdoor sheets of ice, too. The country has more than 2,000 outdoor rinks (second only to Canada) and just 386 indoor rinks.

* There are more female hockey referees (one) in Lithuania than there are female players (zero).

* Should the Czechs be worried? Only 23,209 of their 105,242 male players are under the age of 20, a percentage lowest among leading hockey nations.

Which other interesting facts can you pull out of the data below? All numbers via the IIHF.



Registered Players Officials Rinks



Nation Total Senior U20 Female Male Female Indoor Outdoor Population Canada 625,152 91,379 446,543 87,230 31,804 1,484 2,631 5,000 34,568,211 United States 510,279 137,766 306,813 65,700 23,056 1,247 1,898 85 316,668,567 Czech Republic 107,722 82,003 23,209 2,510 4,333 206 158 23 10,162,921 Finland 66,636 24,778 37,071 4,787 1,700 50 259 15 5,266,114 Russia 66,551 2,833 63,156 562 1,156 13 386 2,064 142,500,482 Sweden 64,214 13,060 47,968 3,186 3,169 81 352 139 9,119,423 Germany 34,256 9,586 21,556 3,114 192 17 201 45 81,147,265 Switzerland 26,466 11,476 14,082 908 1,021 40 158 29 7,996,026 France 18,041 6,763 10,022 1,256 99 7 124 5 65,951,611 Japan 15,474 7,746 5,620 2,108 820 68 110 120 127,253,075 Austria 11,372 5,867 4,853 652 413 22 45 72 8,221,646 Slovakia 9,230 2,025 6,754 451 511 16 60 17 5,488,339 Belarus 7,255 3,219 3,977 59 127 0 30 3 9,625,888 Italy 6,909 2,002 4,502 405 156 6 45 24 61,482,297 Norway 6,899 2,284 3,972 643 199 17 44 2 4,722,701 Great Britain 6,798 2,289 3,815 694 292 27 84 0 63,395,574 Latvia 4,569 2,851 1,636 82 161 22 17 0 2,178,443 Ukraine 4,367 591 3,764 12 77 0 25 7 44,573,205 Kazakhstan 4,324 444 3,773 107 46 7 18 81 17,736,896 Denmark 4,198 1,627 2,165 406 102 4 25 0 5,556,452 Hungary 3,913 209 3,216 488 86 5 18 18 9,939,470 Australia 3,658 2,203 1,067 388 375 29 20 0 22,262,501 Netherlands 2,888 1,465 1,194 229 45 5 26 2 16,805,037 Poland 2,575 713 1,494 368 76 3 35 6 38,383,809 Mexico 2,345 390 1,597 358 18 2 23 0 116,220,947 South Korea 2,106 120 1,796 190 62 11 43 4 48,955,203 North Korea 1,575 640 420 515 20 0 3 12 24,720,407 Estonia 1,341 568 700 73 23 1 7 6 1,266,375 Hong Kong 1,337 597 661 79 9 0 4 0 7,182,724 New Zealand 1,277 665 428 184 50 10 6 3 4,365,113 Romania 1,188 156 947 85 52 5 6 15 21,790,479 Lithuania 1,073 464 609 0 33 1 8 4 3,515,858 Belgium 1,032 255 732 45 38 3 18 1 10,444,268 Mongolia 976 460 516 0 8 0 0 13 3,226,516 India 910 300 345 265 10 0 3 12 1,220,800,359 Slovenia 886 148 687 51 37 1 7 0 1,992,690 Spain 854 236 530 88 30 1 18 0 47,370,542 Turkey 790 310 320 160 80 30 8 3 80,694,485 Greece 713 463 153 97 4 2 0 0 10,772,967 Israel 653 270 374 9 5 0 2 0 7,707,042 Serbia 652 192 449 11 24 2 3 1 7,243,007 Iceland 611 62 445 104 18 3 3 0 315,281 China 610 118 308 184 63 32 58 43 1,349,585,838 Croatia 552 99 402 51 14 1 2 4 4,475,611 Chinese Taipei 546 65 439 42 35 4 4 0 23,299,716 Bulgaria 488 61 378 49 30 1 3 5 6,981,642 South Africa 483 159 257 67 8 2 5 0 48,601,098 Singapore 434 308 95 31 20 1 1 0 5,460,302 Luxembourg 392 130 235 27 26 8 3 1 514,862 United Arab Emirates 371 118 186 67 12 0 4 0 5,473,972 Kuwait 340 89 179 72 1 1 2 0 2,695,316 Georgia 335 80 255 0 4 0 3 1 4,555,911 Kyrgyzstan 330 228 102 0 6 0 1 4 5,548,042 Ireland 297 189 70 38 14 4 0 0 4,775,982 Malaysia 230 118 97 15 1 0 1 0 29,628,392 Bosnia & Herzegovina 203 58 135 10 6 0 2 0 3,875,723 Morocco 156 82 56 18 3 0 2 0 32,649,130 Thailand 145 53 83 9 15 3 11 0 67,448,120 Macau 137 48 61 28 8 0 1 0 583,003 FYR Macedonia 126 79 47 0 0 0 1 4 2,087,171 Liechtenstein 87 65 22 0 0 0 0 0 37,009 Andorra 56 23 24 9 0 0 1 0 85,293

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