Dry and humidified size distributions of atmospheric particles were characterised at the atmospheric research station SMEAR II, Finland between May and July 2004. Particles were classified in a size range between 3 and 800 nm at controlled relative humidities up to 90% by two instruments complementary in size range (HDMPS; Nano-HDMPS). Using the summation method, descriptive hygroscopic growth factors (DHGF) were derived for particle diameters between 70 and 300 nm by comparing dry and humidified size distributions. At 90% relative humidity, DHGF showed mean values between 1.25 and 1.45 in the accumulation mode, between 1.20 and 1.25 in the Aitken mode, and between 1.15 and 1.20 in the nucleation mode. Due to the high size resolution of the method, the transition in DHGF between the Aitken and accumulation modes, which reflects differences in the soluble fraction, could be pinpointed efficiently. For the accumulation mode, experimental DHGFs were compared to those calculated from a simplistic growth model initialised by in-situ chemical composition measurements, and yielded maximum deviations around 0.1. The variation in DHGF could only imperfectly be linked to meteorological factors. A pragmatic parameterisation of DHGF as a function of particle diameter and relative humiditity was derived, and subsequently used to study the sensitivity of the condensational sink parameter (CS) as a function of height in a well-mixed boundary layer.