Once the whipping boys of South American football, Venezuela are joint top of the region's World Cup qualifying group along with Argentina and Uruguay after drawing in Colombia and beating Bolivia this month.
The only South American country never to have qualified for a World Cup, Venezuela once dropped as low as 129th but have now climbed to 39th place, their best position since the rankings were introduced in 1993.
England's win over Spain at Wembley took them up to fifth above Brazil, who were involved in low-key friendlies with Gabon and Egypt and earned fewer points because of the lower rankings of their opponents despite winning both games.
Ivory Coast are Africa's highest-ranked team at 16th with Japan leading the Asian contingent in 19th.
Rankings (last month's positions in brackets)
