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?).

Chart of the Number of Nations at the Winter Olympics over time

Graph of Number of Nations at the Winter Olympics over time

 

Chart of the Number of Athletes at the Winter Olympics over time

Graph of Number of Athletes at the Winter Olympics over time