Mount Everest: Stats and Facts

Mount Everest – the highest in the world – is a bucket list item for many a mountaineer. But the high financial price and terrifying death tolls mean most won’t ever set foot on the summit.

For those of us fascinated by this spectacular mountain though, here are some facts, figures and statistics about Mount Everest.

Mount Everest – Quick Facts

• Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain, standing at a whopping 8,848.68m tall
• It lies in the Himalayas range on the border of Nepal and Tibet
• Over 7,400 people have summited Everest

Mount Everest Death Toll

• Around 300 people have died on Mount Everest
• It is estimated that there are 200 bodies still on the mountain. Most who die will never be recovered from Everest
• In recent years, the death told averages 1% per year so by no means is this the most deadly mountain in the Himalayas

Here are the number of summits plus deaths over the most recent years:

It’s worth noting that in 2014 the season ended early when 16 Sherpas, hence the low summit numbers and high fatality rate.

Numbers are not available for every year.

Mount Everest Costs

• The current peak season cost for the permit to climb Everest is $11,000. From September 2025, this is rising to $15,000
• Lower permit fees apply in non peak months
• In addition, guiding costs, Sherpa costs and other costs must be taken into account, meaning the typical expedition often costs more than $100,000 for a climber seeking to summit Everest

Interest in Mount Everest

We took a look at some statistics from Kwfinder.com which estimates the number of searches for various keywords in Google.

• There are 8,100 searches per month on average in Google globally for “cost to summit everest”

Here are some other similar queries with their global plus UK only estimated monthly Google Searches:

Everest and the Economy

• Climbing and trekking, of which Everest is a significant part, contributes 4% of the total Nepalese economy

Everest Rubbish

We’ve all seen the images of rubbish being brought down off the mountain.

The Nepalese army began undertaking an annual clean up of Mount Everest back in 2019.

Since then:

• 119 tonnes of rubbish has been brought down from the mountain

Everest by Numbers

So while Everest has an incredible allure given its status as the world’s highest mountain, the death toll is not insignificant, the financial costs for climbers are high and the environmental costs of so much traffic heading up to the summit are certainly high too.

But with Everest tourism very much on the up, we can most likely expect to see even more climbers attempting the summit in 2025 and beyond.