The real economic footprint of the 2026 World Cup — the host economies in US dollars, where the money lands, and the matchday spend. Refreshed daily.
The economic briefAI
The 2026 World Cup will unfold across three major North American economies with vastly different scales. The United States hosts the largest economy at 31.8 trillion USD, followed by Mexico at 1.86 trillion and Canada at 1.65 trillion. Per capita wealth varies sharply: Americans average 84,534 USD annually, Canadians 54,340 USD, and Mexicans 14,186 USD.
Travel costs to matches show regional variation, with New York offering the cheapest fares at 479 USD and Houston the highest at 589 USD among surveyed cities. Our model estimates matchday spending will generate approximately 1 billion USD across the tournament. These figures capture direct fan expenditure on tickets, hospitality, and local services, though stadium attendance and spending patterns remain modeled estimates rather than measured data. The tournament's economic footprint will reflect both the host nations' capacity and their fans' purchasing power.
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Answers come only from today's snapshot above — figures, not advice.
Host economies (USD)
United States$31.8T
Mexico$1.9T
Canada$1.7T
US context: inflation 4.2% · unemployment 4.3% · jobs 159M
Sports & hospitality economy (US)
The US workforce and consumer spending the tournament plugs into — all from FRED.
17.1M
Leisure & hospitality jobs
608.8K
Spectator-sports jobs
$438.5B
Spent on sport & recreation / yr
Cross-country layer (World Bank)
Nation
GDP per capita
Population
United States
$84,534
340.1M
Mexico
$14,186
130.9M
Canada
$54,340
41.3M
Host regions compared
The home state or province of each host city, across all three countries — GDP in USD beside population.
State / provinceGDPPopulation
🇺🇸California$4.3T39.4M
🇺🇸Texas$2.9T31.7M
🇺🇸Florida$1.8T23.5M
🇺🇸Pennsylvania$1.1T13.1M
🇺🇸Georgia$924.8B11.3M
🇺🇸Washington$895B8M
🇺🇸New Jersey$887.2B9.5M
🇨🇦Ontario$844.7B16.1M
🇺🇸Massachusetts$820.1B7.2M
🇺🇸Missouri$468.5B6.3M
🇨🇦British Columbia$302.8B5.6M
🇲🇽Ciudad de México$289.6B*9.2M
🇲🇽Nuevo León$148.5B*5.8M
🇲🇽Jalisco$133.7B*8.3M
* Mexican state GDP is modeled as national GDP × the state's INEGI PIBE share (population is live from INEGI); US states via FRED, Canadian provinces via Statistics Canada.
Host-state dining momentum
Food & beverage store retail sales, year-over-year, in each US host state (FRED) — who's spending more on eating in.
Florida+3.3%
Texas+2.4%
Georgia+2.4%
Massachusetts+0.5%
Pennsylvania+0.2%
Washington+0.0%
New Jersey-0.7%
Missouri-1.3%
California-2.1%
Travel-cost pressure
Cheapest one-way fare into each host city in the tournament window — from London (transatlantic) and New York (within the Americas).
🇬🇧 London🇺🇸 New York
San Francisco$660$230
Houston$589$185
Dallas$575$165
Philadelphia$547$181
Mexico City$521$150
Miami$497$175
Atlanta$496$107
New York$479—
Los Angeles$471$207
Vancouver$438$274
Toronto$249$141
Air passengers a year (World Bank): 🇺🇸 941.6M · 🇲🇽 78.8M · 🇨🇦 88.6M
The matchday micro-economymodeled
No live stadium-sales or attendance feed exists, so this is modeled from stadium capacity and documented per-fan benchmarks. Food & beverage is scaled by each host country's local concession price level (Mexico ~½, Canada ~0.95 of the US); FIFA sets ticket prices globally.
Calibrated to published benchmarks (world_cup_2026_economics.md): ~$45/head food+bev, group tickets $150–300, knockouts $700+; AT&T Stadium ~$117M beer cited as a scale peg.
Per fan, food + beverage: $45 (40% on beer)
Fill rate (group / knockout): 93% / 98%
Avg ticket (group / knockout): $225 / $750
Modeled vs. official seats sold
Our model assumes near-sellout crowds. Here's how that holds up against FIFA-official attendance for the matches played so far (via Wikidata), against our stadium capacities.
Official fill so far95.2%
What the model assumes93.0%
Across 22 matches played, official attendance totals 1.4M — close to the model's assumption, so the matchday economy is built on a realistic crowd.
The modeled in-stadium food & beverage spend set against the real restaurant & bar economy the host countries run every month (US via FRED, Canada via Statistics Canada).
One month of host-country restaurants & bars$107.1B
So the tournament's entire modeled in-stadium food & beverage spend is about 0.18% of a single month of host-country restaurants & bars — the matchday model counts only what's spent inside the stadiums.
🇺🇸 $101B/mo · 🇨🇦 $6.1B/mo · as of 2026-05
Sources & methods
FRED (US)live
Banxicolive
Bank of Canadalive
Statistics Canadalive
World Banklive
Travelpayoutslive
INEGIlive
Wikidata (attendance)live
Macro: FRED, Banxico, Bank of Canada, Statistics Canada, World Bank. Fares: Travelpayouts. Matchday spend is modeled, not measured.