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Why do the clocks change?

Twice a year, in many countries, the clocks jump an hour. It is called daylight saving time (or summer time), and it moves an hour of daylight from the early morning to the evening.

How it works

In spring the clocks go forward one hour, so sunrise and sunset both happen an hour later by the clock: lighter evenings, darker mornings. In autumn they go back again. "Spring forward, fall back" is the usual way to remember it.

It only makes sense away from the equator, where the length of the day changes a lot through the year. Near the equator days are close to 12 hours all year, and almost no tropical country changes its clocks.

A short history

The first countries to change their clocks nationwide were Germany and Austria-Hungary, on 30 April 1916, to save fuel during the First World War. Britain followed a few weeks later, and many countries have adopted, dropped and re-adopted it since.

The rules today differ by region. Since 1996 the whole European Union changes on the last Sunday of March and of October, at 01:00 UTC. In 2019 the European Parliament voted to end the clock changes, but the EU's member states have not agreed how, so the changes continue. The United States and Canada have used the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November since 2007, after the US Energy Policy Act of 2005. In the southern hemisphere it all happens the other way round: Australia's south-eastern states, for example, go forward in October and back in April.

2026 dates

  • UK and EU: forward on Sunday 29 March 2026, back on Sunday 25 October 2026
  • US and Canada: forward on Sunday 8 March 2026, back on Sunday 1 November 2026
  • Sydney: back on Sunday 5 April 2026, forward on Sunday 4 October 2026

Who still changes the clocks?

Of the 241 countries and territories on MetaGlobe, 66 change their clocks in at least part of the country in 2026, and 174 do not change them at all. Most of Asia, Africa and South America stays on one time all year.

Some places have recently stopped. According to the latest official time zone data, parts of Canada (Calgary, Edmonton, Yellowknife, Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria and Winnipeg) and Morocco made their last clock change in 2026 and will stay on one time from now on.

Our daylight saving time page has the exact dates and times for every country, worked out from the official IANA time zone database.

Try it

When do the clocks change?Every countryTime zone converterConvert a time between cities

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Clock-change dates and the counts above come from the IANA time zone database, release 2026e. All sources.