Which countries still change their clocks?
A shrinking minority — mostly Europe, North America and a few southern-hemisphere states. Most of the world's population has never moved a clock.
The short answer
Roughly seventy countries, concentrated in Europe, North America, and parts of the southern hemisphere — a minority of countries and a small minority of the world's population.
Nearly all of Asia, nearly all of Africa and most of South America do not observe it, and several countries have abolished it in the last few years.
Who does
Europe. The EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and most neighbours, all on the same rule: last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October. Notable exceptions: Iceland, Belarus, Russia and Turkey, none of which change.
North America. The US and Canada (except Arizona, Hawaii, Saskatchewan and parts of others). Mexico abolished it in 2022 except in some border municipalities. Most of the Caribbean never had it.
Southern hemisphere. Australia — but only New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT; not Queensland, Western Australia or the Northern Territory. New Zealand, Chile, Paraguay and Fiji observe it, running October to April.
Middle East. Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Iran intermittently — Iran abolished it in 2022.
Who does not, and why
Most of the world, and the reason is mostly latitude.
Daylight saving works by moving an hour of summer daylight from the early morning into the evening. Near the equator, day length is close to twelve hours all year, so there is no seasonal surplus to move. Singapore, Nairobi, Bogotá and Jakarta would gain nothing.
That accounts for most of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and northern South America. India, China, Japan and Indonesia together represent an enormous share of the world's population and none of them change their clocks.
Some non-equatorial countries have simply decided the disruption is not worth it. Russia abandoned the twice-yearly change in 2014, Turkey in 2016, Mexico in 2022, Iran in 2022.
The direction of travel
The trend is away from it. The stated benefits — energy saving above all — have not held up well in modern studies, while the costs are increasingly documented: a measurable spike in traffic accidents and cardiac events in the days after the spring transition, and a broad, persistent unpopularity in polling.
The European Union voted in 2019 to abolish the change, with member states to choose whether to settle on permanent standard or permanent summer time. They never agreed, the proposal stalled, and the directive remains in force. In the US similar bills have passed the Senate and then died without a House vote, more than once.
So the likely near-term picture is more countries dropping out individually rather than a coordinated end.
Why this matters for scheduling
Every country that abolishes daylight saving changes its relationship to every country that keeps it — permanently, and in a way that is easy to miss if you memorised an offset years ago.
Mexico is the clearest recent case: a Mexico City–Chicago gap that used to be constant is now seasonal. Anyone with a recurring meeting set up before 2022 has an arrangement that quietly stopped being correct.
The general defence is unchanged: schedule against cities, and let the time zone database carry the rules.
Related: Daylight saving time explained · The tz database
Timezone: World Clock Widget
A world clock, converter and live day/night map for iPhone — 325 cities, offline, no account.
Figures on this page are computed from the IANA time zone database. Last generated 2026-08-18.