Copenhagen or Stockholm?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on good for families and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Copenhagen if you are travelling with children or want the denser run of attractions and parks close to the centre, and if autumn suits your dates best.
Choose Stockholm if you want the sea at the doorstep, more beaches within reach and a wider choice of clubs near the centre, and if late spring is when you can travel.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Stockholm leads by 6 points.6
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 73 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Stockholm leads by 3 points.3
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 76 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,183 | 1,558 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Copenhagen leads by 6 points.6
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 69 |
| Museums within 10 km | 83 | 74 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 51 | 47 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 61 | 64 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 3 |
Nightlife. Copenhagen leads by 3 points.3
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 64 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,384 | 1,090 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 806 | 689 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 58 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 64 | 106 |
Nature & day trips. Copenhagen leads by 9 points.9
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 41 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 5 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 39 | 77 |
| Park area within 2 km | 138 hectares | 104 hectares |
Good for families. Copenhagen leads by 14 points.14
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 57 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 54 | 23 |
| Park area within 2 km | 138 hectares | 104 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Stockholm leads by 5 points.5
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 79 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 273 | 357 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Stockholm leads by 5 points.5
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 57 |
| Price level global | 87.8 | 80.3 |
| Daily budget | €214 | €169 |
Year-round weather. Copenhagen leads by 2 points.2
| Copenhagen | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 3.6 °C to 22.7 °C | 1 °C to 23.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 28 mm to 74 mm | 27 mm to 66 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 5 |
Where they differ
Copenhagen has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre as Stockholm and somewhat more park space close in, and both have 2 theme parks within reach. For heritage day trips it reaches 5 UNESCO-listed places against Stockholm's 3, though a larger share of the land around Stockholm is protected.
Stockholm puts the sea 0km from its centre against 1km in Copenhagen, with 73 beaches nearby against 17, and packs somewhat more notable places into walking distance of the centre.
Where they are alike
Their years run almost in parallel: both peak in July, at 23°C in Copenhagen and 24°C in Stockholm, both are coldest in January, and both see the sea warmest in August, neither reaching 21°C.
Eating out and going out land in much the same place. Stockholm has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, but the range of kitchens is similar; Copenhagen has somewhat more places to drink, while Stockholm's clubs are more numerous and mostly central.
Which traveller are you?
Families are better served in Copenhagen. It has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre and somewhat more park space close in, and while both cities have 2 theme parks within reach, the everyday options are wider.
Anyone who wants to swim should pick Stockholm, where the sea starts at the centre itself and 73 beaches sit nearby against Copenhagen's 17. Time it for August, when the water is warmest in both.
Museum and heritage travellers lean to Copenhagen: a similar number of museums, but 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 3. Night owls lean the other way, towards Stockholm's more numerous and mostly central clubs.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €214 for Denmark and €169 for Sweden, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of either city. Capitals and heavily visited cities can sit far from their country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so neither is shown to cost more than the other.
No weather station near Copenhagen records sunshine hours, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor; its monthly ranking rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And a long list of beaches does not mean warm water: neither city has a month with the sea at 21°C or more.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Copenhagen: 1991-2020 normals, Koebenhavn / Landbohoejskolen (2.4 km from centre). Stockholm: 1991-2020 normals, Stockholm Observatoriet (26.4 km from centre).
Copenhagen holds up better in autumn: September and October highs of 18°C and 13°C against Stockholm's 17°C and 10°C, with the sea still at 15°C in September, though October brings 61mm of rain.
Stockholm is the stronger choice from May into June: 34mm of rain in May against Copenhagen's 47mm, and July highs of 24°C. August is the wettest month in both, 66mm and 74mm, so a warm month is not a dry one.
Getting there
| Flying from | Copenhagen | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 50 m €55-95 CPH · 8 km | 2 h 25 m €89-139 ARN · 36 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 1 h 15 m no fares CPH · 8 km | 1 h 5 m €77-102 1 stop ARN · 36 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 25 m €167-221 CPH · 8 km | 2 h 0 m €153-185 ARN · 36 km |
| HelsinkiHEL | 1 h 45 m €143-174 CPH · 8 km | 1 h 10 m €66-74 ARN · 36 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 50 m €70-135 CPH · 8 km | 2 h 30 m €91-121 ARN · 36 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €195-237 CPH · 8 km | 3 h 15 m €138-141 ARN · 36 km |
| MalagaAGP | 3 h 35 m €144-151 1 stop CPH · 8 km | 4 h 15 m €126-131 ARN · 36 km |
| DohaDOH | 6 h 5 m no fares CPH · 8 km | 6 h 5 m no fares ARN · 36 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 55 m €460-501 1 stop CPH · 8 km | 8 h 5 m no fares ARN · 36 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 10 h 50 m no fares CPH · 8 km | 10 h 25 m €526-560 1 stop ARN · 36 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Copenhagen | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Danish | Swedish |
| Currency | Danish Krone (DKK) | Swedish Krona (SEK) |
| Sockets | CEFK230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 14 m | 22 m |
| Main airport | Copenhagen Kastrup Airport (CPH)8 km from centre144 non-stop destinations | Stockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre172 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Copenhagen | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 667,099 | 984,748 |
| People per km² | 7,339 | 5,260 |
| Museums within 10 km | 72 | 266 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 82 | 81 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Copenhagen or Stockholm somewhere new.