VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chicago or Stockholm?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Chicago for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Chicago’s own page.

Choose Stockholm for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Chicago 50, Stockholm 40: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Stockholm 64: Chicago leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Stockholm 77: Chicago leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Stockholm 57: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago and Stockholm are level on 70.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Stockholm 30: Chicago leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Stockholm 65: Chicago leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Stockholm.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Chicago
62match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Stockholm
64match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoStockholm
Official language-Swedish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m22 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoStockholm
City population2,746,388984,748
People per km²4,5295,260
Museums within 10 km44266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Stockholm somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.