An American (Tourist) in Paris: Who is Going to the Summer Olympics?

Tens of thousands of Americans from all 50 states traveled to Paris in late July to attend the Summer Olympics. But which states sent the most American tourists?

The Games are most popular with Oregonians: Although this tiny Northwestern state only makes up 1.26% of the national population, they made up nearly 13% of all Americans who traveled to Paris for the first week of the Summer Games, according to a new analysis from Start.io.

Per capita, people from Washington state, New Jersey, California, and New York also flocked to Paris in greater-than-average numbers.

Americans most likely to travel to Paris for the Summer Games:

Source: 2023 population estimate (U.S. Census Bureau), and Start.io analysis of number of Americans in Paris (10-day average, 7/18/24 to 7/28/24)

On the flip side, people from Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio traveled to Paris in smaller-than-expected numbers.

For example, Texans make up roughly 9% of the country’s population, but only 4.3% of the Americans currently in Paris, according to Start.io’s analysis.

Americans least likely to travel to Paris for the Summer Games:

Source: 2023 population estimate (U.S. Census Bureau), and Start.io analysis of number of Americans in Paris (10-day average, 7/18/24 to 7/28/24)

Start.io delivers hundreds of millions of mobile ads per day to people globally, through more than 500,000 active mobile apps. Where allowed, we collect anonymized location data attached to each ad request, to help brands deliver targeted ads.

One of the data types we study centers around travel: When people temporarily request ads in other states or countries than expected, we can assume that they are traveling. This helps brands target specific types of ads to travelers—for example, you might see ads for local amusement parks when you’re on vacation.

For this analysis, we took anonymized snapshots of the number of American travelers in Paris every day in the month leading up to the first week of the Summer Olympics, creating a 10-day moving average of which states were sending the highest number of travelers.

We then compared that dataset to a 2023 estimate of the U.S. population from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world have traveled to Paris for the Summer Games. On a typical summer day, roughly 25% of people in Paris are travelers, while 75% are permanent residents, according to Start.io’s analysis.

At the start of the Summer Games, the number of tourists in Paris grew to roughly 33% of the city’s population.

There are 594 American athletes competing in the 2024 Summer Games for Team USA. They come from 46 U.S. states, with Vermont sending the most athletes per capita (4.63 athletes per million residents), according to an analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Four U.S. states failed to send any Olympians to Paris: Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Wyoming.