Clocks change twice a year in most of Europe and North America and in parts of South America and Oceania, and not at all in most of Asia and Africa. The dates differ from country to country, and so does the direction: when Berlin moves its clocks forward for summer, Sydney moves them back for winter. The tables on this page give the next change and every change through 2028 for each country, in local time. They are not typed in by hand. They are read from the IANA time zone database, the same source your phone uses, so when a government changes its rule the page changes with it.

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Next clock change, country by country

Local time in the capital or largest city. Computed from the IANA time zone database.

Other countries

Every clock change 2026–2028

+1 h: clocks go forward one hour. −1 h: clocks go back one hour.

Who Changes the Clocks, and Who Does Not

Roughly a third of the world's countries still observe daylight saving time. The largest block is Europe: every European Union member, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway move on the same two Sundays, the last in March and the last in October. The United States and most of Canada use different dates, the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November, so for two or three weeks each spring and one week each autumn the gap between New York and London is an hour smaller than usual. In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed: Chile, New Zealand and the south-east of Australia put clocks forward in September or October and back in April. Most of Asia, almost all of Africa and most of Latin America keep one time all year, including India, China, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru.

2026 Was the Year Several Places Stopped

The map changed more in 2026 than in any recent year. In Canada, British Columbia put its clocks forward on 8 March 2026 for the last time and now stays seven hours behind Universal Time all year; Alberta and Manitoba did not turn their clocks back in November either, joining Yukon, which stopped in 2020, and Saskatchewan, which has not changed for decades. Morocco returned to Greenwich Mean Time on 20 September 2026 and no longer shifts around Ramadan. Cuba skipped its November 2026 change to save electricity and stays on summer time until November 2027. Earlier, Mexico ended daylight saving time in 2022 and Paraguay stayed on summer time for good in 2024. Each of these is in the time zone database this page reads, which is why the tables show them without anyone editing a date.

Spring Forward, Fall Back: What Happens to the Hour

When clocks go forward, one hour of the night does not exist. In the United States the clock jumps from 1:59 to 3:00, in the European Union from 1:59 to 3:00 Central European Time, in Britain from 0:59 to 2:00. The day is 23 hours long, sunrise and sunset both come an hour later by the clock, and evenings gain light at the cost of darker mornings. When clocks go back, one hour happens twice and the day lasts 25 hours; mornings get their light back and darkness falls an hour earlier. Phones, computers and most cars adjust themselves. Ovens, wall clocks and older watches do not. Travellers should check departure times on the night itself: timetables are printed in the new time, and a train that leaves at 2:30 on a spring-forward night in Germany simply does not run.

Why It Exists, and Why It Is Being Questioned

The modern idea goes back to George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist who proposed a two-hour shift in 1895 so that he could collect insects after work, and to the British builder William Willett, who campaigned for it from 1907. Germany and Austria-Hungary were the first to adopt it nationally, on 30 April 1916, to save coal in wartime; Britain followed within weeks and the United States in 1918. The energy saving it was meant to bring is now small or doubtful, and sleep researchers point to the cost of the spring change in the days that follow. That is why the debate has returned. The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end the changes, but member states never agreed on which time to keep. In the United States the House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act in July 2026; it has not passed the Senate, so the changes continue.

Clock Changes and Your Birth Chart

For astrology the clock change is not a curiosity. A birth chart is cast for the true moment of birth, and the Ascendant moves about one degree every four minutes, so a birth time that is an hour out can put the Rising sign and every house in the wrong place. Whether daylight saving time was in force when and where you were born is therefore part of the calculation. It is often not obvious: the United States had year-round War Time from 1942 to 1945, Britain was on double summer time during the war and on permanent summer time from 1968 to 1971, Germany had no summer time at all between 1950 and 1979. Births in the repeated hour of an autumn night are ambiguous unless the record says which of the two hours it was. Our natal chart calculator applies the historical rule for the place and date of birth automatically.

How to Read the Tables

Each row gives the local date of the change, the time on the clock before and after, and the direction. Where a country has more than one time zone, or regions that do not change, each is listed separately on the country's own page. Dates are those in force in the time zone database at the moment the page is built; governments can and do change them at short notice, as 2026 showed, and when the database is updated the tables follow. A row marked as having no change means that place keeps the same time all year. Times are given in the 24-hour clock. If you are planning a call or a flight across two countries, compare the two tables: the weeks in March, October and November when one country has changed and the other has not are when mistakes happen.

Frequently asked

When do the clocks change next in the United States?

On Sunday 14 March 2027 clocks go forward one hour at 2:00 a.m. local time, and they go back on Sunday 7 November 2027. Arizona and Hawaii do not change.

When do the clocks change next in the UK and Europe?

On Sunday 28 March 2027 clocks go forward one hour, at 1:00 a.m. in the UK and Ireland and at 2:00 a.m. in Central Europe. They go back on Sunday 31 October 2027.

Do the clocks go forward or back in spring?

Forward in spring and back in autumn: spring forward, fall back. In the Southern Hemisphere the months are reversed, so Australia and New Zealand go back in April and forward in September or October.

Which countries do not change their clocks?

Most of them. India, China, Japan, Russia, Türkiye, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico (except towns on the US border), South Africa and nearly all of Africa and Asia keep one time all year.

Clock changes by country