from Joe Pelletier of GreatestHockeyLegends,

The International Ice Hockey Federation has crunched the numbers of it's 62 member nations to show positive growth figures in hockey world wide.

There are now more than 1.64 million registered hockey players worldwide. That is up almost 40,000 or 2.5% over last year. More than 180,000 of those players are female - representing 11%.

On-ice officiating has also seen solid increases with more than a 5% increase to over 74,000 referees and linesmen.

One of the biggest reasons for the increases in players is an increase in facilities. There are now 7,036 indoor ice rinks (3.21% increase) and 7,893 outdoor rinks (3.39% increase) in the IIHF countries.

Here are some highlights of the study by country:

continued and IIHF has the full report...