Different conventions exist around the world for date and time representation, both written and spoken.

Differences

Differences can exist in: *The

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

that is used for

Date format A calendar date is a reference to a particular day, represented within a calendar system, enabling a specific day to be unambiguously identified. Simple math can be performed between dates; commonly, the number of days between two dates may be ca ...

. *The order in which the

year A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 Synodic day, solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) ...

month A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, that is approximately as long as a natural phase cycle of the Moon; the words ''month'' and ''Moon'' are cognates. The traditional concept of months arose with the cycle of Moon phases; such lunar mo ...

, and

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

are represented. (Year-month-day, day-month-year, and month-day-year are the common combinations.) *How weeks are identified (see

seven-day week A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are ofte ...

) *Whether written months are identified by name, by number (1–12), or by Roman numeral (I-XII). *Whether the

24-hour clock The modern 24-hour clock is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) passed since midnight, from to , with as an option to indicate ...

12-hour clock The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. (from Latin , translating to "before midday") and p.m. (from Latin , translating to "after midday"). Each period consists of 12&nb ...

, or 6-hour clock is used. *Whether the minutes (or fraction of an hour) after the previous hour or until the following hour is used in spoken language. *The

punctuation Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...

used to separate elements in all-numeric dates and

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

s. *Which days are considered the

weekend The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week, devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most o ...

ISO 8601

International standard

ISO 8601 ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data. It is maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988, with updates in ...

(''Representation of dates and times'') defines unambiguous written all-numeric

big-endian '' Jonathan_Swift.html" ;"title="Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift">Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift, the novel from which the term was coined In computing, endianness is the order in which bytes within a word (data type), word of d ...

formats for dates, such as 2022-12-31 for 31 December 2022, and time, such as 23:59:58 for 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 58 seconds. These standard notations have been adopted by many countries as a national standard, e.g., BS EN 28601 in the UK and similarly in other EU countries,

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organiz ...

INCITS 30-1997 (R2008), and FIPS PUB 4–2 in the United States (FIPS PUB 4-2 withdrawn in United States).National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2010)
Withdrawn FIPs Listed by Number
United States Department of Commerce. They are, in particular, increasingly widely used in computer applications, since the most to least significant digit order provides a simple method to order and sort time readings.

Local conventions

Date

The

little-endian '' Jonathan_Swift.html" ;"title="Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift">Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift, the novel from which the term was coined In computing, endianness is the order in which bytes within a word (data type), word of d ...

format (day, month, year; 1 June 2022) is the most popular format worldwide, followed by the

format (year, month, day; 2006 June 1). Dates may be written partly in Roman numerals (i.e. the month) or written out partly or completely in words in the local language.

Time

The

is the most commonly used method worldwide to physically represent the time of day. Some regions utilize 24-hour time notation in casual speech as well, such as regions that speak

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, French, or

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, though this is less common overall; other countries that utilize the 24-hour clock for displaying time physically may use the

more often in verbal communication. In most English-speaking regions, the 12-hour clock is the predominant form of representing the time of day physically, while the 24-hour clock is generally used for contexts where unambiguity and accurate timekeeping are important, such as for public transport schedules. These are only generalizations, however, as there is no consistent rule for using one over the other: in the UK, train timetables will typically use 24-hour time, but road signs indicating time restrictions (e.g. on

bus lane A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, generally to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway completely dedicated for use by buses, whilst ...

s) typically use 12-hour time, e.g. "Monday–Friday 6.30–8.30pm". The

BBC website BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

uses the 24-hour clock for its TV and radio programme listings, while BBC promotions for upcoming programmes give their times according to the 12-hour clock. Punctuation and spacing styles differ, even within English-speaking countries (6:30 p.m., 6:30 pm, 6:30 PM, 6.30pm, etc.). Most people who live in countries that use one of the clocks dominantly are still able to understand both systems without much confusion; the statements "three o'clock" and "15:00", for example, are easily recognized as synonyms. While speaking, it may also be common for both systems to be used. People may often pronounce time in 12-hour notation, even when reading a 24-hour display, or use both notations simultaneously. In the latter case, the exact point in time is often registered in 24-hour notation ("The train leaves at fourteen forty-five ..."), while the 12-hour notation is used in more ambiguous contexts ("... so I will be back tonight some time after five."). In most countries there are no formal abbreviations to distinguish before and after noon, many people will commonly use informal designations, such as "in the morning" or "in the evening". In certain languages such as

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Portuguese,

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

, and English the hour is divided into quarters and halves, spoken of relative to the closest hour. In Arabic, thirds of an hour are also used. (xx:20, xx:40) In

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

quarters and halves always refer to the following hour, e.g. ''čtvrt na osm'' (quarter on eight) meaning 7:15, ''půl osmé'' (half of eight) meaning 7:30 and ''tři čtvrtě na osm'' (three-quarters on eight) meaning 7:45. This corresponds to the time between 7:00 and 8:00 being the ''eighth hour'' of the day (the ''first hour'' starting at midnight).

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

uses the same convention: ''четверть восьмого'' (quarter of the eighth hour), ''полвосьмого'' (half of eight), ''без четверти восемь'' (eight without a quarter) meaning 7:15, 7:30, 7:45 respectively. In many

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...

, with the exception of English, the half-hour refers to the next hour (''half to nine'' rather than ''half past eight''). In colloquial language, this can cause confusion between English and German (and other Germanic languages). In conversational English as spoken in the UK, ''half past eight'' (for 8:30) is often reduced to ''half eight'' (whereas in the United States ''half past eight'' would always be used). But in German , Dutch , and Swedish , all invariably mean 7:30. For the quarters, e.g. 7:15 and 7:45, in German different dialects use or (literally "quarter past seven" or "quarter eight"), and or (literally "quarter to eight" or "three-quarters eight"). In many countries it is common in spoken language to refer to times in minutes or fractions of an hour relative to the ''following'' hour rather than the previous one for times after the 30 minute mark – eg 8:55 would be said as "five to nine", and 6:45 would be "quarter to seven". In French, the quarters are expressed as additions or subtractions of the full hour: (literally "seven hours and quarter"), ("seven hours and half"), ("eight hours less the quarter"). It is also common to use this format in Portuguese, specifically in the northern part of Portugal. In

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, the common separator between hours and minutes is the letter "h" (18h45, for example). In

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, the common separator between hours and minutes is a dot (18.45, for example).

Date and time notation on the continents

* Date and time notation in Africa * Date and time notation in Asia ** Date and time notation in

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

*** Date and time notation in Bahrain ** Date and time notation in India **

Date and time notation in Iran In Iran, short dates are written as ''year/month/day'', for example , and long dates as ''day month name year'' from right to left, for example . Both two-digit and four-digit years are valid but months and days are not usually padded with leading z ...

** Date and time notation in Japan ** Date and time notation in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

*** Date and time notation in South Korea **

Date and time notation in Mongolia This article is about date and time notation in Mongolia. Date The date format follows the Mongolian language, which has been big-endian. Consequently, it agrees with year first, month next, and day last. Example: . A leading zero is optional in ...

Date and time notation in Nepal Nepal uses both the DMY and YMD format when writing dates, and uses 12-hour format for time. Date YYYY-MM-DD is official date format for the Bikram Sambat calendar used in Nepal. While speaking and writing full BS dates, the ''mmmm d, yyy ...

Date and time notation in Pakistan Date and time notation in Pakistan is based on the Gregorian and Islamic calendars. Pakistan has not officially adopted any time and date representation standard based on the ISO 8601. Date Government documents and transactions use "DD/MM/YYYY" fo ...

** Date and time notation in Thailand ** Date and time notation in the Philippines **

Date and time notation in Turkey In Turkey, the little endian date format is used, and 24-hour clock is more common than the 12-hour clock system. Date Present In Turkey, dates are written in the form DD.MM.YYYY (), or "D YYYY" (little endian format, ). It is rare to use abbrev ...

** Date and time notation in Vietnam * Date and time notation in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Date and time notation in Canada Date and time notation in Canada combines conventions from the United Kingdom, conventions from the United States, and conventions from France, often creating confusion. The Government of Canada specifies the ISO 8601 format for all-numeric da ...

** Date and time notation in the United States * Date and time notation in Europe **

Date and time notation in France France most commonly records the date using the day-month-year order with an oblique stroke or slash (”/”) as the separator with numerical values, for example, 31/12/1992. The 24-hour clock is used to express time, using the lowercase letter ...

** Date and time notation in Italy **

Date and time notation in Russia In Russia, dates are usually written in "day month year" (DMY) order. The 12-hour notation is often used in the spoken language, and the 24-hour notation is used in writing. Date Present In Russia, dates are usually written in "day month year" ...

Date and time notation in Spain In Spain, date notation follows the DD/MM/YYYY format. Time notation depends on the level of formality and varies in written and spoken formats. Official time is given using the 24-hour clock, and the 12-hour clock is often used in informal speec ...

Date and time notation in Sweden Date and time notation in Sweden mostly follows the ISO 8601 standard: dates are generally written in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Although this format may be abbreviated in a number of ways, almost all Swedish date notations state the month between the ...

Date and time notation in the Netherlands Date In the Netherlands, dates are written using the little-endian pattern "day–month–year" as is usual elsewhere in Europe and many other countries. Either dashes or slashes are used as separators. Times are written using 24-hour cloc ...

Date and time notation in the United Kingdom Date and time notation in the United Kingdom records the date using the day–month–year format (31 December 1999, 31/12/99 or 31/12/1999). The time can be written using either the 24-hour clock (23:59) or the 12-hour clock (11:59 p.m.), ...

* Date and time notation in

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

** Date and time notation in Australia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Date And Time Representation By Country

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

Date and time