Which Countries Observe Daylight Saving Time And Which Don’t
May 21, 2026
Daylight Saving Time can feel like a universal fact of modern life, but it's actually observed by a minority of the world's countries. As of 2023, only around 34% of nations still practice seasonal clock changes, primarily in Europe and North America. The other two-thirds either never adopted DST or have quietly abandoned it over the decades.
So who's still doing it, who opted out, and why? The reasons are more interesting than you'd expect, touching on geography, climate, politics, religion, and the occasional historical accident.
Who Still Observes DST
Europe is the most consistent DST bloc. Nearly all European countries spring forward and fall back together, switching on the last Sunday in March and reverting on the last Sunday in October. The notable exceptions within Europe are Russia, Turkey, Belarus, Iceland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, all of which stay on a fixed time year-round.
North America is the other major DST region, though with more patchwork exceptions. Most of the contiguous United States and the majority of Canada observe DST. Mexico largely abolished it in 2022, with exceptions for cities along the U.S. border that maintained it to stay synchronized with American trading partners.
Latin America and the Caribbean have scattered participation, some countries observe DST, many don't, and the picture shifts from decade to decade as governments weigh the costs and benefits.
Beyond those regions, DST thins out considerably. Parts of Australia observe it; most of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East do not.
Why Equatorial Countries Skip It
The closer you are to the equator, the less DST makes sense. The whole premise of DST is that summer daylight hours are long and shifting them around provides a useful benefit. Near the equator, that premise collapses. Day length stays roughly 12 hours year-round regardless of season.
Countries like Kenya, Singapore, Indonesia, Colombia, and Ecuador sit close enough to the equator that the difference in daylight between their longest and shortest days is minimal. There's simply nothing to "save." Adjusting clocks would create inconvenience with zero practical return.
This is also why U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands don't observe DST. Hawaii opted out in 1967, the Hawaiian islands sit far enough south that sunrise and sunset times vary only by about two and a half hours between summer and winter. The state briefly experimented with DST in 1933, but repealed it after just three weeks.
The Case of Arizona
Arizona's opt-out is the most famous in the United States, and the reasoning is specific to the desert climate. The state last observed DST in 1967, then rejected it the following year.
In most of the country, an extra hour of evening daylight in summer is a pleasant bonus, more time for outdoor activities after work. In Arizona, where summer temperatures in Phoenix regularly exceed 110°F (43°C), more evening daylight means the brutal heat lingers longer. The sun sets later, temperatures stay elevated longer, and air conditioning runs harder. DST would increase energy consumption in Arizona, not reduce it.
By staying on standard time, Arizona gets an earlier sunset by the clock during summer which provides quicker temperature relief and lets people go to bed in sync with the cooling of the night.
There's one notable exception within the state: the Navajo Nation, which covers a large stretch of northeastern Arizona as well as parts of Utah and New Mexico, does observe DST to keep the entire tribal nation on the same schedule across state lines.
Japan: A Postwar Rejection
Japan has never observed DST at the national level since 1952.
DST was actually imposed on Japan by Allied occupation authorities after World War II, starting in 1948. It was deeply unpopular with the Japanese public, who found it disruptive and confusing. As soon as the Japanese government regained legislative authority in 1952, three weeks before the occupation formally ended, it abolished DST. The occupation authorities didn't intervene.
Since then, DST has never returned, despite periodic proposals. In the late 1990s and again in 2007, there were serious discussions about reintroducing it for energy and environmental reasons, but the proposals went nowhere. Part of the resistance is cultural, Japan's work culture and scheduling norms are built around fixed time, and the disruption of twice-yearly clock changes is viewed as a cost that outweighs the benefits. Japan runs on a single time zone (JST, UTC+9) with no variation, making scheduling predictable and simple.
China: Tried It, Ditched It
China observed DST from 1986 to 1991 then stopped, citing the "inconvenience of the system."
The experiment was motivated by energy conservation. A Peking University study at the time suggested DST could save up to 2 billion kilowatt-hours annually, and in 1986 the government made the switch. It did produce some energy savings, but it also created significant confusion, particularly given that China spans what would naturally be five geographic time zones yet operates on a single nationwide time (UTC+8). Applying DST to the entire country at once amplified its disruptiveness in western regions, where the sun's schedule already diverges dramatically from the official clock. By 1992, the government had had enough.
China has since maintained a single fixed time zone, and there's no serious political appetite to revisit DST.
India: The Geometry Doesn't Work
India uses a single time zone, UTC+5:30, for the entire country, even though its geography spans what would naturally be about two time zones. This was a deliberate choice for national unity and administrative simplicity.
The consequence is that adding DST on top of an already-compressed time zone would create significant confusion. India is also far enough south that seasonal daylight variation, while real, is less dramatic than at higher latitudes. The practical case for DST has never been strong enough to overcome the organizational complexity it would introduce.
Russia and Turkey: Permanent Time
Russia and Turkey have both been through the full cycle, observing DST, experimenting with permanent DST, and landing in different places.
Russia switched to permanent DST in 2011 under President Medvedev, hoping to eliminate the disruptive twice-yearly clock change. The experiment backfired: Russian winters at high latitudes are already dark, and permanent DST pushed sunrise even later, leaving commuters and schoolchildren traveling to work in complete darkness until mid-morning. Public dissatisfaction was widespread. In 2014, Russia reversed course and switched to permanent standard time, where it remains.
Turkey followed the opposite trajectory. It switched to permanent DST in 2016 and has stayed there. Turkish officials credit the change with energy savings and improvements in mood and productivity associated with longer evening daylight. Whether it lives up to those claims is debated, but unlike Russia, Turkey hasn't reversed course.
Countries That Abandoned DST in Recent Years
A significant number of countries observed DST in the past but have phased it out. In just the last decade or so: Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Namibia, Samoa, Syria, Uruguay, and most of Mexico have all ended their seasonal clock changes.
Egypt is an unusual case, it abolished DST in 2014, then brought it back in 2023 as an energy-saving measure during a period of electricity shortages. Morocco has taken a different approach: since 2018, it has permanently adopted what is effectively DST (UTC+1), but shifts its clocks back to UTC+0 during Ramadan, when the longer daylight hours of DST would make the daily fast longer and delay the iftar meal. It then returns to UTC+1 afterward. This means Moroccans change their clocks twice a year, but for religious rather than seasonal reasons.
The EU's Stalled Abolition
Within Europe, there has been a sustained push to end seasonal clock changes. In 2019, the European Parliament voted to abolish DST across the EU by 2021, giving member states the choice between permanent standard time and permanent summer time. But the proposal stalled in the European Council, where member states couldn't agree. The challenge became apparent: if neighboring countries chose different permanent times, Europe's carefully synchronized schedules would fracture.
A bloc of northern countries preferred permanent standard time (arguing it's better for health and circadian rhythms). Southern countries, with more daylight to work with year-round, leaned toward permanent summer time. No consensus was reached. As of 2025, Europe is still changing its clocks twice a year, and the abolition proposal remains unresolved.
The Pattern Behind It All
Step back and the picture is consistent. DST is most useful at higher latitudes, where summer days are dramatically longer than winter days and shifting an hour of morning light to the evening makes a real difference. It's least useful near the equator, in hot desert climates, and in large countries that already use a compressed time zone for national unity.
The countries that have abandoned DST most recently tend to be those where the practical benefits were always marginal, or where the disruption of the twice-yearly change came to outweigh them. The trend is clearly away from DST but slowly, and unevenly, as it has been since the practice first spread a century ago.