Every Olympic city, mapped

 

On the heels of the IOC announcement that Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympic games, I thought I’d put together a map of all the cities to host the Olympics since the beginning of the modern Olympic movement in 1896. In the map below, cities with a red label hosted the Summer Games, and cities with a blue label hosted the Winter Games. Future host cities are included on this map, but cities that were scheduled and later cancelled (Berlin in 1916, Tokyo and Sapporo in 1940, and London and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1944) are not included.

You’ll probably note some patterns. An African city has yet to host the Olympics; likewise for the Middle-East. South America will host its first Olympics in 2016, and Asian Olympic cities are clustered around the Korean peninsula.

If we group cities by continent, we get the following numbers:

Continent	Cities	Share
Europe	24	55.81%
North America	10	23.26%
Asia	6	13.95%
Oceania	2	4.65%
South America	1	2.33%
Africa	0	0
Totals	43	100%

But those figures don’t account for the cities that have hosted the Olympics multiple times. When we factor that into it, the numbers are as follows:

Continent	Hostings	Share
Europe	31	58.49%
North America	12	22.64%
Asia	7	13.21%
Oceania	2	3.77%
South America	1	1.89%
Africa	0	0
Totals	53	100%

These numbers are basically the same if we break them down into Summer and Winter cities/hostings. Regardless of how you break it down, Europe ends up around 55-60%, followed by North America (20-25%), Asia (13-15%), Oceania (0-9%), and South America (0-4%). Of note is the fact that the Winter Olympics has only taken place in Europe, North America, and Asia.

The IOC seems to be trying to diversify the location of its host cities over the last several years, so if I had to guess where the Summer Olympics might be headed, I’d pick Africa and Asia. For the Winter Olympics I’d target South America and Oceania. Here is a list of possible candidates from those areas:

City	Continent	Olympics
Algiers, Algeria	Africa	Summer
Durban, South Africa	Africa	Summer
Johannesburg, South Africa	Africa	Summer
Tunis, Tunisia	Africa	Summer
Almaty, Kazakhstan	Asia	Either
Ankara, Turkey	Asia	Either
Baku, Azerbaijan	Asia	Summer
Delhi, India	Asia	Summer
Doha, Qatar	Asia	Summer
Dubai, UAE	Asia	Summer
Hong Kong, China	Asia	Summer
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Asia	Summer
Singapore	Asia	Summer
Taipei, Taiwan	Asia	Summer
Istanbul, Turkey	Europe/Asia	Either
Auckland, New Zealand	Oceania	Summer
Christchurch, New Zealand	Oceania	Winter
Perth, Australia	Oceania	Summer
Buenos Aires, Argentina	South America	Summer
Mendoza, Argentina	South America	Winter
Santiago, Chile	South America	Either

I’ve also added these cities onto the map above — simply check the box next to “Possible Olympic Candidates” to display them.

Keeping in mind that weather, political stability, and human rights are significant considerations when it comes to Olympic hosts, can you think of any other candidates? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

– Devin