Side by Side: Who Still Changes the Clocks?

Clocks across the European Union and the United Kingdom went back an hour overnight, seven years after Brussels voted to stop them (the full story of that vote ran here yesterday, in “One Hour Back”). So, for the passport check of the calendar: which governments still move the clocks twice a year, since when, and how far did the last attempt to stop get?

European Union

Member states have coordinated summer and winter time since 1980, when the European Economic Community began lining them up to cut energy use and tidy the common market, Ara reports. On 20 October 2025 Pedro Sánchez asked the Council to end the change (“Francamente, yo ya no veo sentido”), Finland and Poland joined him, and the energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, promised “un nuevo análisis.” A year on, the analysis has not reached the clocks. Europe went back an hour this morning, which at least gives the analysts one more.

United Kingdom

William Willett proposed the idea in a 1907 pamphlet, “The Waste of Daylight,” and Britain adopted summer time in 1916, a few weeks after Germany, Royal Museums Greenwich says. From 1968 to 1971 the clocks went forward and stayed there; the experiment ended because “it was found impossible to assess the advantages and disadvantages.” The Daylight Saving Bill 2010-12 did not pass. Britain could not tell after three years, and has gone on moving them every spring and autumn to keep checking.

United States

Daylight saving arrived in 1918 and became a national standard with the Uniform Time Act of 1966; Hawaii and most of Arizona stay on standard time all year. In 2022 the Senate “unanimously approved the Sunshine Protection Act,” the House never passed it, and the 2025 versions, S. 29 and H.R. 139, were referred to committee, after which “No other action has been taken,” as of a report last summer. The Senate has agreed with itself completely, and the House has not yet looked at its watch.

Canada

British Columbia passed a law in 2019 to stop changing its clocks, on condition that the Yukon, Washington, Oregon and California did the same; a consultation drew more than 220,000 responses, about 93 percent wanting the lighter evenings kept, The Georgia Straight reports. The Yukon went to UTC-7 all year from 1 November 2020. The three American states did not move, and on 2 March 2026 Premier David Eby announced that the 8 March change would be British Columbia’s last. A business federation called the decision “rushed,” seven years after the law was passed.

Mexico

Mexico adopted daylight saving in 1996, Mexperience reports, and set its clocks back “for good” on 30 October 2022 after the Senate voted 59 to 25, with 12 abstentions, KTVU reports. Sonora and Quintana Roo were already exempt; Baja California and border towns in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas may keep changing so as to match the United States. Mexico abolished the clock change everywhere except where the neighbours can see it.

Brazil

Summer time was created in 1931, used on and off until 1968, restored in 1985 and applied every year after that, until a presidential decree of 25 April 2019 ended it, Panrotas reports. The Ministry of Mines and Energy said the savings were “perto da neutralidade,” because air conditioning had moved the peak of demand to 3 p.m. The air conditioner abolished summer time; the president only signed for it.

China

China put the whole country on one clock in 1949, although it spans five geographic time zones, and from April 1986 to September 1991 it also ran daylight saving, ended “due to its unpopularity,” the LTL Mandarin School says; in Guangzhou many people simply ignored it. Beijing persuaded five time zones to keep one hour. The extra hour was the one it could not get everyone to keep.

South Korea

Summer time was introduced on 31 May 1948 by the U.S. military government, abolished in 1961, revived in May 1987 ahead of the Seoul Olympics and dropped again after two years, The Korea Times reported. A 1997 revival was stopped by other ministries and a 2009 one was shelved, partly because “we are not supposed to leave work in broad daylight.” Seoul never objected to the light, only to being seen leaving in it.

Australia

New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT move their clocks; Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not, The Canberra Times reports. Queensland voted on 22 February 1992 and said no by 54.5 percent, the state’s electoral commission records, and Western Australia has said no in referendums in 1975, 1984, 1992 and 2009. Perth has asked the same question four times, which is more consistent than the clocks it keeps declining.

Egypt

Cairo brought daylight saving back in 2023, having last applied it in July 2016, and now runs it from the last Friday of April to the last Thursday of October, Egyptian Streets reported; this year that is 29 October, four days after Europe. The cabinet cited efforts “to save energy consumption” and “the country’s economic conditions.” Cairo restored the hour to save energy four years after Brasília dropped it for saving almost none.

Verdict

Mexico and Brazil settled the question in a vote and a decree, China in five years, and Britain is still assessing an experiment it closed in 1971. Washington and Brussels have the opposite problem from Perth: the Senate said yes unanimously and the European Parliament said yes in 2019, and both are waiting for the other half of the building. British Columbia waited seven years for California before giving up, and Mexico’s border towns still keep American time by choice. From Perth to Brussels, the consensus holds: the clocks should stop, right after somebody else’s do.