What Countries Do Daylight Savings?

Daylight Saving Time (DST), also known as European Summer Time (EST), is the variation of standard time by one hour commonly practiced in Europe and North America. Daylight saving time is practiced during the summer to make the evening last longer by sacrificing the regular sunrise. George Hudson proposed the idea in 1895, but it was not until 1916 that Austria-Hungary and the German Empire became the first states to implement the practice. Countries closer to the equator do not adjust time because the sunrise time does not fluctuate enough to justify daylight saving time. Most countries in Africa and Asia also do not observe daylight saving time. In total, 62 countries effect daylight saving.

Countries That Do Daylight Savings

The Americas

The United States observes DST in all states except for Hawaii and the Navajo Nation of Arizona. Between 1942-1945 and 1974-1975, the country observed DST all year round. In the US, DST begins on the second Sunday of March and ends in the first Sunday of November. Canada also observes DST at the same time as the United States. The Canadian province of Saskatchewan does not observe DST because it maintains the Central Time Zone meaning that DST is present all year round. Mexico also observes DST while Greenland observes the practice under the European Union practices. Parts of Paraguay and the southern region of Brazil are the only regions that observe DST in South America. Uruguay stopped observing DST in 2015. Chile ended the practice in 2016 and replaced it with wintertime that extends from the second Saturday of May to the second Sunday of August. All the Central American states do not observe daylight saving.

Europe

European countries observe the European Summer Time (EST) which is a Europe’s version of the DST. The practice is maintained in all European states excluding Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Iceland. Daylight saving time begins on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October. Belarus ended DST in its time zone in 2010 and Georgia in 2005. The government of Hungary considered abolishing EST in 2017 by moving the country to the to the UTC+2 time zone, but the plan was not effected because only the European Union can carry out such a move.

Other Countries

None of the African countries observe daylight saving. Namibia became the last country in Africa to drop the daylight saving time in 2017 by moving the country to the UTC+2 time zone and replaced it with wintertime to correlate its time with South Africa. Egypt stopped observing DST in 2015, and the plans to reintroduce the practice in 2016 failed. In Australia, DST is used in New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, and Jervis Bay Territory.

Purpose of DST

Daylight saving time makes the evening longer not by affecting the course of the sun but by moving one hour from the morning to the evening. The primary aim of the practice is to make use of more daylight in the summer. The length of the day and night in the equator barely varies regardless of the season but in other parts of the world, the change in season affects the length of the day and night time.