Time in Iceland

Time in Iceland is given by UTC±00:00.[1] Iceland does not have an associated daylight saving time.[2] Iceland adopted UTC±00:00 in 1968.

Time in Iceland
Time zone map with Iceland
UTC offsetUTC±00:00
Central meridian65th parallel north (UTC−01:00)
Time notation24-hour clock
Adopted1968
Daylight saving time
DST not observed
tz database
Atlantic/Reykjavik
Time in Europe:
Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Western European Summer Time / British Summer Time / Irish Standard Time (UTC+1)
Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
Moscow Time / Turkey Time (UTC+3)
pale colours indicate where standard time is observed all year; dark colours indicate where a summer time is observed

Although Iceland observes UTC±00:00, the westernmost part of Iceland lies in the nominal UTC−02:00 zone, and the majority of Iceland, including Reykjavík, lies in the nominal UTC−01:00. Nevertheless, Iceland uses UTC±00:00 in order to be in sync with Europe. Icelandic health experts have noted that these gives Icelandic teenagers social jet lag, which is misalignment of biological and social time.[3] Despite this, the Icelandic government has announced it would not be switching time zones.[4]

History

In the early 1900s, due to the little need for time zones in a country without any railways or international borders, cities in Iceland were free to pick to observe any time zone they wished. After Landsíminn, Iceland's national telephone company, was founded in 1906, it was decided that a nationwide time zone would be needed for convenience, and Iceland adopted GMT−1 (UTC−01:00).[5][6]

Iceland observed daylight saving time, which moved the clocks forward one hour to GMT±0 (UTC±00:00), between 1917 and 1919, 1921 and from 1939 to 1967.[7] Public opinion on daylight saving time was negative, however, and in 1968 daylight saving time was abolished and Iceland switched from UTC−01:00 to Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±00:00). This was decided by the University of Iceland, which came to the conclusion that GMT±0 would be a better choice as then Iceland would be in sync with Europe.[5]

Notation

Iceland uses the 24-hour clock.

IANA time zone database

In the IANA time zone database, Iceland is given one zone in the file zone.tab – Atlantic/Reykjavik. Data for Iceland directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database; columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself:[8]

c.c.* coordinates* TZ* Comments UTC offsetDST
IS+6409−02151Atlantic/Reykjavik +00:00 +00:00

See also

References
  1. Iceland at The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  2. Time & daylight. Nordic Visitor. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  3. Björg (27 November 2014) Brýnt lýðheilsumál að seinka klukkunni. [Urgent public health issue to delay the clock]. (in Icelandic). Morgunblaðið. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  4. Despite popular support, Iceland will not change its local time, 1 September 2020. Nord News. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  5. Fontaine, Andie (11 September 2020) Ask An Historian: Why Is Iceland On Greenwich Mean Time?. The Reykjavík Grapevine. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  6. Staff (1 December 2014) Will Iceland be moved into its right geographical time zone?. Iceland Magazine. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  7. Daylight Saving Time changes in Reykjavik, Iceland (Reykjavíkurborg). TimeAndDate.com. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  8. Europe at the tz database. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
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