It might seem easy to calculate the number of hours in a year, but it can be a bit tricky with the regular year, leap year, and different types of years.
To put it simply, there are 8,760 hours in a year and 8,784 hours in a leap year.
The Hours in a Year
In most of the world, we use the Gregorian Calendar which has 365.2425 days in a year. It uses the common year (365 days), then a leap year (366 days) every four years to keep its calculation right.
Here’s how we calculate the number of hours in a year:
Hours in a Day x Days in a Year = Hours in a Year
- 1 Common Year: 24 hours per day x 365 days = 8,760 hours
- 1 Leap Year: 24 hours per day x 366 days = 8,784 hours
There are also various other types of years. The Julian calendar was used before the Gregorian calendar; however, it was inaccurate and overestimated the year length by 11 minutes 14 seconds. There is also a sidereal year which is the actual time it takes the Earth to make a rotation around the Sun counting from star to star, the tropical year (that counts from equinox to equinox), and others. Here are the hours in those:
| Type of Year | Hours in Year |
|---|---|
| Common Year (365 days) | 8,760 |
| Leap Year (366 days) | 8,784 |
| Gregorian or Mean Year (365.2425 days) | 8,765.82 |
| Julian Year (365.25 days) | 8,766 |
| Sidereal Year (365.25636 days) | 8766.15264 |
| Tropical or Solar Year (365.24219 days) | 8765.81256 |
| Lunar Year (354.37 days) | 8504.88 |
| Draconic or Eclipse Year (346.62 days) | 8318.88 |
Also asked: How many hours in a year of work? In America, there is a consensus of having 2080 work hours in a year; however, the actual number is higher. Isn’t it crazy that we work 1/4 of our lives? Also, school (K-12) years take up 39 weeks or an average of 1080 hours.
The Hours in a Day, Week & Month
Let’s take a look at some other units of time. We already know that there are 24 hours in a day. That means there are 168 hours in a week. To find out how many hours are in a week you would calculate:
Hours in a Day x Days in a Week = Hours in a Week
- 1 Day: 24 hours
- 1 Week: 24 hours x 7 days per week = 168 hours
Using a similar calculation, you can figure out the days in a month. If you only took the hours in a year (8,760) and tried to divide it equally into 12 months to get 730 hours, that would be wrong.
Remember that each month has a different amount of days, and February has an extra day in a leap year. That’s why the hours in a month range from 672 hours to 744 hours.
Hours in a Day x Days in a Month = Hours in a Month
- 1 Month: 24 hours x (28-31) days = 672 to 744 hours
- 28 days = 672 hours
- 29 days = 696 hours
- 30 days = 720 hours
- 31 days = 744 hours
Conclusion
In summation, there are 8760 hours in every year, then 8784 in a leap year where February has an extra day. Calculating the number of hours in a year is a straightforward but essential exercise that can help us appreciate the preciousness of time.
Whether you’re using this information for practical purposes or simply reflecting on the concept of time, it serves as a valuable reminder to prioritize what truly matters in our lives.
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FAQ
There are not 87,600 hours in 10 years because leap years would add extra time. There would be 87,648 in 10 years if it had 2 leap years in it and 87,672 hours if there were 3 leap years.