Thanks to the victory at the women's world championship in Germany Denmark further consolidated its lead in the current IHF points table, which is always updated following to a competition of the world federation.
After the Scandinavians had already been successful in Turkey (men's junior WC) and on the Ivory Coast (women's junior WC) they have now taken the clear lead in the performance breakdown of the handball nation's documented ranking.
Changes occurred only in the middle of the field. Germany moved up with its bronze medal, while women's world championship runner-up Hungary lost ground.
The IHF points table, in which the top 12 countries are listed, is based on all World Championships and the Olympic Games.
As the next World Championships will not be held until spring 1999, Denmark can consider itself the world's number one handball country for over a year. Following are the individual rankings:
 
 

Rank	(old)	Flag	Country	Points
1.	(1)		DEN	48
2.	(2)		RUS	42
3.	(3)		FRA	36
4.	(3)		KOR	28
5.	(6)		NOR	26
6.	(9)		GER	25
7.	(6)		ESP	24
8.	(11)		CRO	23
9.	(5)		HUN	22
-	(6)		SWE	22
11.	(10)		EGY	21
12.	(-)		POL	14