Time in Brazil is calculated using
standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
s: Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02:00), Brasília time (UTC−03:00), Amazon time (UTC−04:00), and Acre time (UTC−05:00). About 93% of the Brazilian population live in Brasília time (UTC−03:00).
Time zones
Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02:00)
This is the standard time zone only on a few small offshore
Atlantic islands. The only such island with a permanent population is
Fernando de Noronha, with 3,167 inhabitants (2022 census), 0.0016% of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
's population.
[ The other islands ( Trindade and Martim Vaz, Rocas Atoll and Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago) either are totally uninhabited or have small seasonally rotating Brazilian Navy garrisons or teams of scientists.
]
Brasília time (UTC−03:00)
The main time zone of Brazil comprises the states in the South, Southeast and Northeast regions (except the small islands mentioned above), plus the states of Goiás, Tocantins, Pará and Amapá
Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...
, and the Federal District, which includes the national capital city, Brasília. About 93% of the Brazilian population live in this time zone, which covers about 60% of the country's land area.[
]
Amazon time (UTC−04:00)
This time zone is used in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondônia, Roraima, and most of Amazonas. Although this time zone covers about 36% of the land area of Brazil (an area larger than Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
), only about 6% of the country's population live there (about 12 million people, slightly more than the city of São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
).[
Until 2008, the part of the state of Pará west of the Jari and Xingu rivers was also part of this time zone; then it joined the rest of the state in observing Brasília time (UTC−03:00). Although other changes to Brazilian time zones enacted at that time have since been reverted (see below), western Pará still remains in UTC−03:00.
]
Acre time (UTC−05:00)
This time zone was reinstated in late 2013, after having been abolished for over five years. It is used in the far-western tip of the country, which includes the entire state of Acre and the southwestern portion of the state of Amazonas (west of a line connecting the cities of Tabatinga and Porto Acre). These areas cover only about 4% of the Brazilian territory (although that is still about the size of Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
) and have only about 0.5% of the country's population (little more than one million people).[
On 24 June 2008, these areas advanced their clocks by an hour, so that they became part of the UTC−04:00 time zone. However, in a non-binding referendum held on 31 October 2010, a slight majority of Acre voters voted in favour of returning the state to UTC−05:00. On 30 October 2013, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff enacted Law 12876, establishing that the time zone switch would occur on Sunday, 10 November 2013. Since then, the state of Acre and the southwestern part of the state of Amazonas are again 5 hours behind UTC.
]
Unofficial observance
Unofficially, 32 municipalities in eastern Mato Grosso, located in the Araguaia valley, observe UTC−03:00, Brasília time.
Unofficially, some municipalities in eastern Mato Grosso do Sul, such as Bataguassu, Aparecida do Taboado, Cassilândia and Chapadão do Sul, also observe UTC−03:00, Brasília time.
Daylight saving time
Brazil observed daylight saving time (DST; , "summer time") in the years of 1931–1933, 1949–1953, 1963–1968 and 1985–2019. Initially it applied to the whole country, but from 1988 it applied only to part of the country, usually the southern regions, where DST is more useful due to a larger seasonal variation in daylight duration. It typically lasted from October or November to February or March.[ which comprise about 65% of the Brazilian population.][ During DST, Brasília time moved from UTC−03:00 to UTC−02:00; the other states that did not follow DST observed a change of the offset to Brasília time.
Brazil abolished DST in 2019.][
]
IANA time zone database
The IANA time zone database contains 16 zones for Brazil. Columns marked with * are from the file zone.tab of the database.
See also
* Date and time notation in Brazil
* Lists of time zones
Notes
References
External links
Time Service Division
of the National Observatory of Brazil
Legal time in Brazil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Time In Brazil
Geography of Brazil
Time in South America