VacationSelector
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Seattle by Caio, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Seattle 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 Seattle for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • families

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. Seattle 30, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Seattle 66, Stockholm 64: Seattle leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Seattle 50, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Seattle 55, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seattle 87, Stockholm 72: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Seattle 55, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Seattle 64, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Seattle 60, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Seattle 52, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Seattle 22, Stockholm 30: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seattle 70, Stockholm 65: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seattle 40, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Seattle and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Seattle
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SeattleStockholm

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. Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeattleStockholm
Official language-Swedish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation40 m22 m
Main airportSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeattleStockholm
City population737,015984,748
People per km²1,9965,260
Museums within 10 km27266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Seattle 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.