Olympic Host City Economics

Exploring the financial outcomes of hosting the Olympic Games from 1960 to 2026, including total spending, revenue generation, cost overruns, GDP impact, and venue legacy scores across Summer and Winter Games.

Underlying Data

Aggregated totals per host city from collected data. Cost and revenue in billions USD. Scroll horizontally to see all columns.

Year City Season Total Cost ($B) Total Revenue ($B) Net ($B) Cost Overrun % GDP Impact % Jobs Created Venue Reuse (1-5) Outcome

Visualization 1: Cost vs. Revenue Efficiency

Bubble chart comparing total cost (x-axis) against total revenue (y-axis) for each host city. Bubble size represents jobs created. Color indicates Summer (amber) vs Winter (blue). The diagonal line marks break-even.

Who spent wisely?

Cities above the diagonal generated more revenue than they spent. Larger bubbles mean more jobs created. Hover for details.

Key finding: Los Angeles 1984 is the only Summer Games that achieved a surplus, spending just $0.55B while generating $0.9B in revenue. Beijing 2008 and Sochi 2014 represent the highest-cost outliers with minimal revenue recovery. Winter Games consistently cluster in the low-cost, low-revenue zone, with the notable exception of Sochi.

Visualization 2: Cost Overruns vs. Venue Legacy

Comparing each city's cost overrun percentage against its venue reuse score (scaled to percentage). Cities that overspent massively but failed to reuse venues represent the worst outcomes.

Did overspending buy lasting infrastructure?

Red bars show cost overruns. Teal bars show venue reuse score (scaled 0-100). The worst hosts overspent dramatically with little venue legacy to show for it.

Key finding: Montreal (720% overrun, reuse score 2/5), Athens (49% overrun, reuse 1/5), and Rio (352% overrun, reuse 1/5) represent the worst cost-to-legacy ratios. Meanwhile, LA 1984 (9% overrun, reuse 5/5), Barcelona (266% overrun, reuse 5/5), and London (101% overrun, reuse 5/5) show that high spending can still produce strong legacies if venues are designed for post-games use.