VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • getting around
  • families
  • beaches

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. Johannesburg 5, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Stockholm 57: Johannesburg leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 66 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Stockholm 30: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 28 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgStockholm

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgStockholm
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSwedish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m22 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgStockholm
City population4,803,262984,748
People per km²2,9225,260
Museums within 10 km14266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.