VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Shanghai 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 Shanghai for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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. Shanghai 10, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Stockholm 64: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Stockholm 57: Shanghai leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Stockholm 68: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Stockholm 84: Shanghai leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Stockholm 70: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Stockholm 30: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Stockholm 65: Shanghai leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai 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

Shanghai
66match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Stockholm
64match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiStockholm

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. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiStockholm
Official languagePutonghuaSwedish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation4 m22 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiStockholm
City population24,870,895984,748
People per km²3,9225,260
Museums within 10 km45266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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