Shanghai picked its theme for Expo 2010- "Better City, Better Life" -in the hope that urban development experiences from cities around the world would help to provide solutions for problems plaguing cities such as "extremes of wealth and poverty," "scarcity of economic resources," "environmental pollution," and "cultural conflict."
而本屆上海世博以「城市，讓生活更美好」為主題，乃是希望藉由全球各國城市發展經驗的展示與交流，找出應對「貧富差距」、「資源緊缺」、「環境污染」、「文化磨擦」等現有城市負面議題的解決方式，也為未來人類尋求更美好的城市生活願景。