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How many hours of daylight does Sweden get in December?

December day length in Stockholm and in the far north.

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Short answer

Stockholm has about 6 hours of daylight in mid-December, with the sun up from 8:34 am to 2:48 pm on 11 December 2025, according to timeanddate. Further north the days are shorter, and north of the Arctic Circle the sun does not rise at the winter solstice, according to SMHI.

Polar day and polar night in Sweden Illustration of a season wheel with snow, a birch leaf, sun and rain around a red Swedish cottage

Why

  1. According to timeanddate.com, the day in Stockholm lasted about 6 hours and 14 minutes on 11 December 2025, with sunrise at 8:34 am and sunset at 2:48 pm.
  2. According to SMHI, the sun does not rise at all north of the Arctic Circle at the winter solstice, and in Kiruna it does not reach above the horizon around 22 December.
  3. According to SMHI, polar night began in Kiruna on 11 December in 2021, after the sun rose briefly above the horizon on 10 December.

Details

Visit Sweden gives Stockholm sun times of 8:47 am to 2:55 pm in January. Hours of sunshine are a different measure: according to SVT, citing preliminary SMHI figures, Stockholm had less than one hour of sunshine in the first eleven days of December 2025. Day length shrinks with latitude in winter, so the north has the shortest days.

Tip

Use the daylight hours around midday for outdoor plans in December, and look up the exact sunrise and sunset for your place and date.

People also ask

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  • How short are the days in Sweden in December?

Sources

Information checked on 27 October 2026.

Polar day and polar night in Sweden

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    What to wear in Gothenburg depends on the month, because SMHI's normal mean temperature is about 1 °C in January and about 18 °C in July.

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