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Winter Olympics: The Number of Participating Countries & Athletes

The first official Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix France, attended by 16 nations with just 16 medal events, the latest in 2018 in PyeongChang had 92 nations competing (plus athletes from Russia who participated under the IOC flag), and a similar number are expected in 2022 Beijing.

The number of both nations and participating athletes has steadily climbed over time, from 16 nations up to 93 in South Korea, and from 258 athletes up to 2833 in 2018.

Table of Number of Nations and Athletes

Year	Host city	Nations	Athletes
2022	Beijing	?	?
2018	PyeongChang	92	2833
2014	Sochi	88	2780
2010	Vancouver	82	2566
2006	Torino	80	2508
2002	Salt Lake City	77	2399
1998	Nagano	72	2176
1994	Lillehammer	67	1737
1992	Albertville	64	1801
1988	Calgary	57	1423
1984	Sarajevo	49	1272
1980	Lake Placid	37	1072
1976	Innsbruck	37	1123
1972	Sapporo	35	1006
1968	Grenoble	37	1158
1964	Innsbruck	36	1091
1960	Squaw Valley	30	665
1956	Cortina d'Ampezzo	32	821
1952	Oslo	30	694
1948	St. Moritz	28	669
1936	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	28	646
1932	Lake Placid	17	252
1928	St. Moritz	25	464
1924	Chamonix	16	258

data source: Winter Olympic Games overview pages on olympics.com (retrieved 18 Oct 2022). The Wikipedia pages for the same Olympics have slightly higher numbers for participating athletes (why?).