The reason I say daylight rather than sunlight is that I don’t think London ever gets 7 hours of actual sunlight on the 21st.
The table below from Current Results, supports this.
It shows the number of actual sunlight hours (rather than daylight hours) of major European cities for the whole month of December.
| City | Hours |
|---|---|
| Valletta, Malta | 155 |
| Lisbon, Portugal | 142 |
| Monaco, Monaco | 139 |
| Nice, France | 139 |
| Barcelona, Spain | 138 |
| Marseille, France | 135 |
| Athens, Greece | 127 |
| Madrid, Spain | 124 |
| Andorra la Vella, Andorra | 109 |
| Turin, Italy | 109 |
| Podgorica, Montenegro | 107 |
| Naples, Italy | 105 |
| Skopje, Macedonia | 80 |
| İstanbul, Turkey | 71 |
| Pristina, Kosovo | 70 |
| Belgrade, Serbia | 65 |
| Sofia, Bulgaria | 64 |
| Bucharest, Romania | 63 |
| Milan, Italy | 59 |
| Chisinau, Moldova | 58 |
| Odessa, Ukraine | 57 |
| Lyon, France | 54 |
| Dublin, Ireland | 53 |
| Vaduz, Liechtenstein | 52 |
| Amsterdam, Netherlands | 51 |
| Paris, France | 51 |
| Vienna, Austria | 51 |
| Lille, France | 50 |
| Zagreb, Croatia | 50 |
| Budapest, Hungary | 49 |
| Munich, Germany | 49 |
| Manchester, United Kingdom | 47 |
| Prague, Czech Republic | 47 |
| Rotterdam, Netherlands | 47 |
| London, United Kingdom | 46 |
| Brussels, Belgium | 45 |
| Cologne, Germany | 44 |
| Luxembourg, Luxembourg | 43 |
| Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina | 41 |
| Birmingham, United Kingdom | 38 |
| Copenhagen, Denmark | 38 |
| Rostov-on-Don, Russia | 38 |
| Berlin, Germany | 37 |
| Ljubljana, Slovenia | 37 |
| Hamburg, Germany | 35 |
| Oslo, Norway | 35 |
| Zurich, Switzerland | 35 |
| Glasgow, United Kingdom | 33 |
| Kazan, Russia | 33 |
| Stockholm, Sweden | 33 |
| Nizhny & Novgorod, Russia | 29 |
| Minsk, Belarus | 27 |
| Helsinki, Finland | 26 |
| Vilnius, Lithuania | 25 |
| Riga, Latvia | 24 |
| Moscow, Russia | 19 |
| Tallinn, Estonia | 18 |
| Saint Petersburg, Russia | 13 |
| Reykjavík, Iceland | 12 |
London, gets 47 hours total, or 1.5 hours per day on average, which is actually middle of the pack. Far better than Reykjavík at just 12 hours in the whole month, or an average of just 23 minutes per day!
And finally, here’s a map showing When the sun sets in Europe’s capitals during winter solstice:
Some further context for the map.
There are two key factors that determine the time of sunset here
- The city’s latitude
- The city’s position in its time zone
How the latitude affects it is easy enough to understand but for the time zone it gets a bit tricky. A lot of European countries doesn’t necessarily fit the time zones they are in.
The more east you’re in a time zone the earlier the sun will set (and rise) in comparison to cities on the same latitude but further west in the same time zone.
That’s why you see outliers like Warsaw, Minsk, Madrid and Reykjavik.
Sunset Times for European Capitals (Local Time):
- 14:30 – 14:59
- Stockholm, Sweden: 14:48
- 15:00 – 15:29
- Oslo, Norway: 15:12
- Helsinki, Finland: 15:13
- Tallinn, Estonia: 15:20
- Warsaw, Poland: 15:25
- Reykjavik, Iceland: 15:29
- 15:30 – 15:59
- Copenhagen, Denmark: 15:38
- Riga, Latvia: 15:43
- London, UK: 15:53
- Berlin, Germany: 15:54
- Vilnius, Lithuania: 15:54
- Budapest, Hungary: 15:55
- Kyiv, Ukraine: 15:56
- Moscow, Russia: 15:57
- 16:00 – 16:29
- Belgrade, Serbia: 16:00
- Bratislava, Slovakia: 16:00
- Prague, Czech Republic: 16:02
- Vienna, Austria: 16:03
- Skopje, North Macedonia: 16:06
- Dublin, Ireland: 16:08
- Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina: 16:11
- Podgorica, Montenegro: 16:13
- Tirana, Albania: 16:14
- Zagreb, Croatia: 16:14
- Ljubljana, Slovenia: 16:19
- Amsterdam, Netherlands: 16:29
- 16:30 – 16:59
- Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: 16:37
- Nicosia, Cyprus: 16:38
- Bucharest, Romania: 16:38
- Brussels, Belgium: 16:39
- Rome, Italy: 16:42
- Vatican: 16:42
- Bern, Switzerland: 16:43
- Sofia, Bulgaria: 16:56
- Paris, France: 16:56
- 17:00 – 17:29
- Athens, Greece: 17:09
- Lisbon, Portugal: 17:18
- Ankara, Turkey: 17:26
- 17:30 – 17:59
- Madrid, Spain: 17:51
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