During the past 50 years, the average temperature in Sweden has increased nearly twice as much as the global average. While the worldwide temperature has risen by roughly 1°C since 1970, this warming is not distributed evenly. In Sweden, the average temperature increased by approximately 2°C during the same period.
Data Sources and Methodology
The global temperature data is sourced from Berkley Earth (the raw dataset is freely available here), while the data for Sweden comes from SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute).
To minimize the impact of temporary annual fluctuations, we compared two ten-year periods:
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Period 1: 1965 to 1974
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Period 2: 2015 to 2024
Key Findings
Between these two periods, Sweden’s average temperature rose from 3.8°C to 5.7°C—a total increase of 1.9°C. In contrast, the global increase was 1.05°C.
Note on Global Data: The Berkeley Earth data is expressed as the “Average of the Annual Anomaly Air Temp Above Sea Ice,” representing the difference from the estimated global mean temperature of 14.102°C (calculated from Jan 1951 to Dec 1980).
Visualizing the Change
The two graphs below illustrate the changes in average annual temperatures for both Sweden and the world. The period from 1965 to 2024 is highlighted with an orange shape.
Please note that the vertical axes use different scales to accommodate the specific data ranges.
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Graph 1 (Sweden): Based on SMHI data, the black trend line shows the average annual temperature rising from roughly 4°C to almost 6°C between 1965 and 2024.
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Graph 2 (World): The second chart illustrates the average global temperature anomaly. Within the highlighted period, the red trend line shows an increase of roughly 1°C, rising from approximately 0.2°C to 1.2°C above the reference period levels.
Source:
Global Source: https://berkeley-earth-temperature.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Global/Land_and_Ocean_summary.txt
Sweden Source: https://www.smhi.se/klimat/klimatet-da-och-nu/klimatindikatorer/temperatur