Visualizing the Cost of Hosting the Olympics

The Paris Olympics are estimated to cost over $9 billion to host, making them one of the less expensive Summer Oylmpic Games in recent memory.

This graphic lists the estimated cost of hosting the Olympics (Summer and Winter) in 2021 USD. It goes back to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. The figures come from various sources and were accessed via the Council on Foreign Relations.

The cost of hosting the Olympics has varied massively in recent years, from Sochi’s $59.7 billion to Salt Lake City’s $2.9 billion (2021 USD).

Year	Country	City	Summer/Winter	Cost (2021 USD)
1996	U.S.	Atlanta	Summer	4.2
1998	Japan	Nagano	Winter	17.9
2000	Australia	Sydney	Summer	8.1
2002	U.S.	Salt Lake City	Winter	2.9
2004	Greece	Athens	Summer	18.7
2006	Italy	Turin	Winter	5.3
2008	China	Beijing	Summer	52.7
2010	Canada	Vancouver	Winter	8.9
2012	United Kingdom	London	Summer	13.3
2014	Russia	Sochi	Winter	59.7
2016	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	Summer	13.0
2018	South Korea	Pyeongchang	Winter	15.4
2020	Japan	Tokyo	Summer	35.0

One of the biggest costs associated with hosting the Olympics is infrastructure. This includes sports facilities such as arenas and general infrastructure like housing and transportation.

This is typically higher for summer games, which can attract hundreds of thousands of tourists.

As a result, despite generating billions of dollars in revenue, the Olympics can leave a negative legacy for a host city if not carefully planned or executed.

For example, a report by the University of Birmingham concluded that the most expensive event—Sochi in 2014—left the Russian resort vastly overdeveloped relative to its actual occupancy levels. The report estimates that over a billion dollars of follow-up investment is required to maintain the underused infrastructure, including transport networks, sporting venues, and hotels.

Credit: Visual Capitalist