How many hours are in a year?

The answer to this question “How many hours are in a year?” appears to be simple, however barely delicate considering the fact that there are different years (a regular year and a leap year). 

One must also be reminded that there are different calendar years, so there will be the need to consider the year and calendar year in question to aid in calculation accuracy.

However, most times, when a question like this is asked, “How many hours are in a year?”. It is mostly considered as one is  asking about the regular year which has 365days. 

If the regular year (365days) is what you have in mind, then don’t worry you will get your answer shortly and that of a leap year and other calendar years.

How many hours are in a regular year?

A year is the time taken by the earth to make one revolution around the sun. 

A regular year is considered to have 365 days of which each day has 24hours. 

Therefore, in answering the question ‘how many hours are in a year?’, you would have to multiply the number of days in the year by the number of hours in a day which would be 8760 hours in a year.

Thus, 365 days × 24 hours = 8,760 hours.

How many hours are in a leap year?

A leap year is a year occurring once every four years, which has 366 days including 29th February as an intercalary day. 

So to answer the question above, we would have to multiply the number of days which is 366 days by the number of hours in a day (24hours) which will give us 8784 hours in a year.

Thus,the calculation will read as,  366 days × 24 hours = 8784 hours.

How many hours  are in the various calendar years?

The Julian calendar year

According to the Oxford dictionary, the Julian calendar is a calendar introduced  by the authority of Julius Caesar in  the year 46 BC which was replaced by the Gregorian calendar but nonetheless still used by some Orthodox churches. [source]

The calendar has an average of 365.25 days each year. So then, the hours in this year would be 8766 hours. That is, 365.25 days × 24 hours = 8766 hours.

The Gregorian calendar year

The Gregorian calendar is also referred to as the Mean year. It is the solar dating system that was introduced in1582 by pope Gregory XIII, as a modification of the Julian calendar and has a mean of 365.2425 days.[source]

 So then the number of hours in the Gregorian calendar is 8765.82 hours.

The Sidereal Calendar year

A sidereal year is a calendar year used by astronomers to determine the time taken by the earth or another planetary body to revolve around the sun once with regards to the fixed stars. 

The sidereal year has a length of 365  days ( 365 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes, 38 seconds), thus it has a complete hours of 8766.15264 in a year.

The Tropical Calendar year

The Tropical Calendar year is also called the solar year which comprises a complete cycle of seasons used to keep track of seasons for planting and harvesting. 

It is therefore the time taken by the sun to return to the same position it left in the earth. 

It also has a length of days as 365.24219 days ( 365 days, 5hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) Thus, it had a sum of 8765.81256 hours in a year.

The Lunar Calendar year

The lunar calendar is a calendar year based on the monthly cycles of the moon phases, that is, 29.53 days synodic orbit around the earth . 

The year has 12 lunar months which when multiplied to the days makes 354.36 days per a year. That means this calendar is short of approximately 11days when compared to the number of days it takes the earth to orbit around the sun which is (365 days). 

So then, the number of hours this calendar has in a year is 8504.88 hours.

The Draconic Calendar year

It is also known as the eclipse year. It records the time taken by the sun ( as seen from the earth) to complete its orbit with respect to the same lunar mode ( a point where the Moon’s orbit intersects the ecliptic).

 It has an average duration of 346.62 days ( 346 days, 16 hours, 50 minutes, 54seconds), which then makes a sum of 8318.88 hours a year.

Additional Breakdown of hours: How many hours are in a month?

Conclusion

To conclude, the number of hours in a regular year (365 days) is 8,760 hours and that of a leap year ( 366 days) has 8,784 hours. 

The number of hours in the various calendar years are expounded in this article so you can check it up there, however, the Gregorian calendar which is the most common amongst all the calendar years has a mean of 365.2425 days which makes 8,765.82 hours in a regular year and 8,789.82 hours in a leap year (366.2425 days).

Was this helpful?

Did you know about all these calendar years? 

Let me know your answer in the comment section below.