Daylight Saving Time starts 2026 has already happened. It was Sunday, 8 March 2026, 173 days ago. This page is kept whichever side of today the date falls on: the date and the rule behind it are worth looking up either way. For the year after this one see Daylight Saving Time starts 2027, and for the always-current countdown see the next Daylight Saving Time starts.
Daylight Saving Time starts 2026 is Sunday, 8 March 2026
Daylight Saving Time starts 2026 fell on Sunday, 8 March 2026, which was 173 days before 28 August 2026. That is 24 weeks and 5 days, or 121 working days once Saturdays, Sundays and the US federal holidays in between are taken out — the figure that matters if you are counting delivery lead time or a work schedule rather than sleeps. The date is 2026-03-08 in ISO form and 3/8/2026 in the US format, it falls in ISO week 10 of 2026, and it is day 67 of 365.
How the date of Daylight Saving Time starts is decided
In the United States, the second Sunday in March at 2:00 am local time, when clocks go forward one hour. The European Union changes on the last Sunday in March, so for a few weeks the usual offsets between US and European zones do not apply.
That makes it a floating date: it is pinned to a weekday rather than to a day number, so it is always a Sunday but the date moves. In 2026 that is 8 March.
Daylight Saving Time starts is an observance rather than a federal holiday. Offices, banks and schools stay open unless an individual employer chooses otherwise, and it counts as an ordinary business day in every calculator here. Only the eleven federal holidays are treated as non-working days — the list and the reasoning are on the holiday sources page.
Daylight Saving Time starts in the years after 2026
| Year | Date | Day | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 14 March 2027 | Sunday | Daylight Saving Time starts 2027 |
| 2028 | 12 March 2028 | Sunday | Daylight Saving Time starts 2028 |
| 2029 | 11 March 2029 | Sunday | Daylight Saving Time starts 2029 |
The weekday never changes; only the date does, inside the March window the rule allows.
Every convention used above — whether the start date counts, how month ends are clamped, which holidays close an office — is written out on the methodology page, including how we count the 121 working days above.