Stockholm travel guide by district
From the lanes of Gamla stan to the cliffs of Södermalm and the painted caves of the metro. Learn Stockholm’s districts, find the places worth traveling for, and get to know the city in ten short sections.
- Population
- About 990,000 (municipality, 2025)
- Area
- About 188 km² of land (municipality)
- Districts
- 11 district areas (stadsdelsområden)
- Language
- Swedish
- Founded
- First recorded in 1252
- Best months
- May through September
Eleven districts, one Stockholm
Järva
Formed in 2023 from Rinkeby-Kista and Spånga-Tensta. Million Programme estates in Rinkeby, Tensta and Husby sit beside the Kista tech district and the open fields of Järvafältet.
From Järva in the north to Farsta in the south, across a city built on islands and water. Select an area to read it, then play the map and try finding all eleven. These are the city’s district areas since 2023, when Norrmalm and Östermalm merged into Norra innerstaden and Rinkeby-Kista and Spånga-Tensta became Järva.
A little Stockholm before you go
Geography & significance
A capital between lake and sea.
Lake Mälaren reaches deep into central Sweden, and its outlet to the Baltic runs past the islands where Stockholm stands. A fortified town there could control and tax the trade moving between the inland towns and the sea. The inner city sits on fourteen islands where Mälaren drains into the sea, including Gamla stan, Södermalm, Kungsholmen and Djurgården. More than fifty bridges tie them together, so water is part of the view from almost anywhere.
The archipelago stretches about 80 kilometers east into the Baltic, with roughly 30,000 islands, islets and rocks. Ferries from the city center reach its villages, summer houses and nature reserves. With the weight of the Ice Age ice sheet gone, the land here rises by about half a centimeter a year. Over the centuries this made the city's straits shallower and helped turn Mälaren from a bay of the sea into a freshwater lake.
Commonly asked2 questions
- Why did Stockholm grow up where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic?
- Lake Mälaren reaches deep into central Sweden, and its outlet to the Baltic runs past the islands where Stockholm stands. A fortified town there could control and tax the trade moving between the inland towns and the sea.
- Why is Stockholm often described as a city on fourteen islands?
- The inner city sits on fourteen islands where Mälaren drains into the sea, including Gamla stan, Södermalm, Kungsholmen and Djurgården. More than fifty bridges tie them together, so water is part of the view from almost anywhere.
The places you came to see
Gamla stan · Stortorget
The oldest square in Stockholm, ringed by tall painted merchant houses and the Nobel Prize Museum. Wander the narrow lanes around it, including Mårten Trotzigs gränd, the narrowest.
Fifteen landmarks, museums, parks and waterfront stops. Essential is our starting shortlist for a first visit; worth a detour helps you go further. These are editorial priorities, not visitor-number rankings.
Keep going one place deeper
When you have had your fill of Stockholm, the country around it has a guide of its own, and so does the language you will hear on its streets.
District boundaries: OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL. District area boundaries retrieved September 2026, simplified for display. Areas include the lakes and bays inside the city limits. This learning map is not a survey or a boundary authority. Boundary source and license. Guide references: City of Stockholm, Visit Stockholm, SL public transport. Check official attraction sites for current admission and access details. Photographs are from Wikimedia Commons and credited on each one.