The United States hosted three games (one was held in both the US and the UK) and Japan hosted its third games in 2020. Austria, Norway, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada have each hosted two games.
The games have primarily been hosted on the continent of Europe (14 games). Four games have been hosted in Asia and five in North America, and one game has been hosted in the region of Oceania. (The 1984 Summer Paralympics were held in both the US and the UK). Rio de Janeiro's winning bid for 2016 will be the third Americas host. No Paralympic Games have been hosted in the continents of Africa and Antarctica.
Host cities are selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Currently, they are selected seven years in advance.[1] The selection process takes two years. In the first stage of the selection process, any city in the world may submit an application to become a host city. After ten months, the Executive Board of the IOC decides which of these applicant cities will become candidate cities based on the recommendation of a working group that reviews the applications. In the second stage, the candidate cities are investigated thoroughly by an Evaluation Commission, which then submits a final short list of cities to be considered for selection. The host city is then chosen by vote of the IOC Session, a general meeting of IOC members.[2]
bEquestrian events were held in China's Hong Kong SAR.[3] Although Hong Kong's separate NPC conducted the equestrian competition, it was an integral part of the Beijing Games; it is not conducted under a separate bid, flame, etc. The IPC website lists only Beijing as the host city.[4]