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Provinces and States

British Columbia	Quebec	Ontario
Alberta	Saskatchewan	Nova scotia
Prince Edward Island	Northwest Territories	Yukon Territory
Washington	Oregon	California

 Corporate Exhibits

Air Canada	B.C.T.V.	Canadian Pacific
VIA Rail	American Express	Canadian National
General Motors of Canada	Telecom Canada	Pavilion of Promise

Theme Exhibits

Great Hall of Ramses II	The Roundhouse	Special Images Holography
Million Dollar Gold Coin	Expo Centre	Folklife

Rides
For fear that the local summer fair (Pacific National Exhibition) would suffer from Expo, the Expo organizers decided not to host a Midway.  Instead,  they sporadically placed a few traditional rides introduced at World's fairs which included:

Looping Starship	Caraboo Logchute
Scream Machine (rollercoaster)	Children's Play Area
1907 Philadelphia Toboggan Co. Carousel	Minolta Space Tower

So how does Vancouver Rate? 

Expo 86 is considered a success story.   Despite a deficit of $311, 000, 000 (CAD) the British Columbian tax payer wouldhave been stuck with a much larger bill if the attendance had not almost doubled from the original projected number of 13.7 million.  The legacy structures themselves are worth well more than the deficit. 

To date, Expo 86 can boast the second highest attendance of any world's fair within the last 30 years and the highest attendance record for a Specialized/Category 2 fair since New York's fair in 1939. 

At 70 hectares (173 acres) Expo 86 was part of a movement to bring the more economical Specialized fairs to a higher standard.  The focus was shifted away from bombastic architecture such as towers and monuments toward more conservative structures that could be reused in the future. 

Then there is the human factor.  Expo 86 is considered the pivotal point in time where the locals began to see Vancouver as a "world class" city.   Many people believe that the World's Fair helped put Vancouver on the map and civic pride hit a new high with the new-found recognition from around the world.
 

Year	CITY	COUNTRY	AREA (ACRES)	AREA (Ha)	# of International Participants	Category	Attendance
1900	Paris	France	297	120	58	UE	50 860 801
1904	St. Louis	USA	1235	500	60	UE	19 694 855
1915	San Francisco	USA	628	254	32	UE	19 000 000
1933	Chicago	USA	420	170		GE Cat. 2	22 317221
1935	Brussels	Belgium	375	152	30	GE Cat. 2	20 000 000
1937	Paris	France	260	105	44	GE Cat. 2	31 040 955
1939	New York City	USA	1235	500	33	GE Cat. 2	44 000 000 (2 years)
1958	Brussels	Belgium	494	200	42	GE Cat. 1	41 454 412
1962	Seattle	USA	74	30	17	GE Cat. 2	9 000 000
1964	New York City	USA	646			NR	51 607 037 (2 years)
1967	Montreal	Canada			62	GE Cat. 1	50 306 648
1970	Osaka	Japan	865	350	75	GE Cat. 1	64 218 770
1974	Spokane	USA	100	40.5		SE	4 800 000
1975	Okinawa	Japan	274	100	37	SE	3 485 750
1982	Knoxville	USA	74	30	16	SE	11 127 786
1984	New Orleans	USA			26	SE	7 335 279
1985	Tsukuba	Japan	247	100	111	SE	20 334 727
1986	Vancouver	Canada	173	70	54	SE	22 111 578
1988	Brisbane	Australia	98	40	30	SE	18 574 475
1992	Seville	Spain	538	215	108	UE	41 814 571
1993	Taejon	Korea	222	90	141	SE	14 000 000
1998	Lisbon	Portugal	123	50	146	SE	10 128 204
2000	Hannover	Germany	395	160	155	UE	18 100 000
2005	Seto, Aichi	Japan				SE
200?						SE
2010	Shanghai	China				UE

World's Fair Categories 

UE = Universal Exposition -- usually the largest fairs in terms of acreage and International participants.  But most historical fairs before the 1930s are generally considered Universal Expositions regardless of the size.  The earliest Universal Expositions were housed in one large building.  Since the turn of the 20th century a UE is most often recognized by participating countries designing and building their own pavilions.  Also, a UE usually runs for a minimum
5 to six months.  The UE category was re-established in the early 1970s.

SE = Specialized Exposition -- Smaller in acreage than a UE.  International participants are usually not requested to design their own pavilion, but rather, are given space in existing structures provided by the host country.

GE = General Exposition --  Term given to all recognized fairs between the 30s and the early 70s.  The General Exposition could be either a category 1 (UA) or 2 (SA).  The term General Exposition was put in place to distinguish the difference between a World's Fair and a Horticultural or Agricultural fair. 

Cat.  Category (1 and 2) -- The terms category 1 and category 2 can be interchanged with UE and SE, respectively.

NR = Not Recognized by the Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE).  In order to host a World's Fair, the host country/city must follow a procedure much like the bidding process for the Olympic Games. If that country/city wins the bid, they are recognized by the BIE and all the countries who belong to the organization. Some cities such as New York City in 1964 hosted a fair without the BIE's support, thus, it is not in the official record books.

A and B Fairs are terms used primarily by the media.  The BIE does not use A or B to describe a World's Fair category. 

Note that the number of International participants does not always equal the total number of pavilions.  Some fairs, such as Seattle 62, housed many countries in a few buildings.  Hannover 2000 did the same with nations that wished to participate but could not or did not want to go through the expense of designing and building a detached pavilion. 

Additionally, corporate pavilions have become increasingly popular over the years.  In some fairs, corporate pavilions outnumbered National pavilions, but corporate pavilions are not counted in most official records.  The number of International participants tabulated in the table above only include nations.  It does not include corporate, religious or
theme pavilions.