Events from the year 1888 in Sweden

• Monarch – Oscar II
• Prime Minister – Robert Themptander, Gillis Bildt

• 6 February – Gillis Bildt assumed the position of prime minister
• 25 June – The Umeå city fire destroyed most of the city of Umeå
• 30 September – Elizabeth Stride is murdered in Whitechapel in London.
• The Iron Ore Line is opened.
• The trade union Swedish Metalworkers' Union is formed.
• The mursmäckas launched a strike in Stockholm to raise their salary. This attracted a great deal of attention because of their gender, and the newspapers called it The Women's Strike.^[1]
• The Women's Worker's Club, the first political club for women in Sweden, is founded by Elma Danielsson in Malmö.
• The temperance activist Emilie Rathou became the first woman in Sweden to demand the right for women suffrage in a public speech.^[2]
• The Fotografiska Föreningen (Photographic Society) is founded: the first woman, Anna Hwass, is made a member of the board.^[3]
• The morganatic marriage between Prince Oscar and Ebba Munck cause a scandal.
• 1888 Sundsvall fire

• 26 January - Lisa Steier, ballerina and ballet master (died 1928).
• 18 March – Axel Janse, gymnast (died 1973).^[4]
• 26 March – Elsa Brändström, nurse and philanthropist (died 1948)
• 14 December – Åke Lundeberg, sport shooter (died 1939).^[5]
• 18 December – Mauritz Eriksson, sport shooter (died 1947).^[6]

• 21 July – Victoria Benedictsson, writer (born 1850)
• 7 February – Aurore von Haxthausen, composer (born 1830)