Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, including the dependencies

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

, uses six

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...

Time zones

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET ...

UTC+01:00 as standard time, and UTC+02:00 as daylight saving time, with transition dates according to the European Union rules. *All of

proper. **Including

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Aarhus and

Rønne Rønne ( sv, Rönne) is the largest town on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,807 (1 January 2022). It was a municipality in its own right from 1970 until 2002, when Bornholm was a county ( Danish: ''Born ...

( Bornholm) :The UTC+01:00 centerline ( 15°E) goes through Bornholm, approximately 2 kilometers from

Gudhjem Gudhjem is a small town and fishing port on the northern coast of the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark. Its population is 736 (1 January 2022). Gudhjem is a popular venue for tourists who are attracted by its steep, picturesque streets, views ...

, in the far eastern Denmark, while Copenhagen at 12°34′E corresponds to UTC+0:50, and the west coast at 8°6′E corresponds to UTC+0:32. :The time in Denmark is not ''de jure'' linked to UTC, but rather to Earth's rotation, and the clock is 12:00, when the sun is above the 15° Eastern meridian. As Earth's rotation is not completely regular, the ''de jure'' time can be offset by up to a half second in either direction, compared to UTC+1.

Western European Time Western European Time (WET, UTC±00:00) is a time zone covering parts of western Europe and consists of countries using UTC±00:00 (also known as Greenwich Mean Time, shortly called GMT). It is one of the three standard time zones in the Europe ...

UTC±00:00 as standard time, and UTC+01:00 as daylight saving time. *The

:The island of Mykines is actually located at 7°36′W longitude and thus at UTC-00:31 (closer to UTC-01:00 than UTC), however Mykines uses the same time zone as the rest of the Faroe Islands.

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a con ...

UTC±00:00 year around, no

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

*The northeast coast of

. There are a few settlements, like the weather station Danmarkshavn, otherwise unpopulated. :The area uses same time as Iceland (WET), since it is generally supplied from Iceland. This is however unofficial. In the summer the time is the same as for East Greenland time.

East Greenland Time

UTC-01:00 as standard time, and UTC±00:00 as daylight saving time. *

Ittoqqortoormiit Ittoqqortoormiit (East Greenlandic: ; West Greenlandic: ''Illoqqortoormiut'' ), formerly known as Scoresbysund, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. Its population was 345 as of 2020 and has been described as one o ...

, Neerlerit Inaat and surrounding area on the east coast of

West Greenland Time

UTC-03:00 as standard time, and UTC-02:00 as daylight saving time. *All the west coast of

**Including

Qaanaaq Qaanaaq (), formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the local Inukt ...

, Ilulissat,

Kangerlussuaq Kangerlussuaq (; ; da, Søndre Strømfjord), is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality located at the head of the fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub and the site of Greenland's largest commer ...

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...

and

Qaqortoq Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town and the municipal capital in southern Greenland and the ...

Tasiilaq Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik and Angmagssalik, is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Green ...

and

Kulusuk Kulusuk (old spelling: ''Qulusuk''Eastgreenland.com.Kulusuk".), formerly Kap Dan, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, located on an island of the same name. The settlement population of 241 includes many Dane ...

on the east coast *Except the

Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north ...

:Some places, such as Qaanaaq (69°13′W corresponding to UTC-04:37) and Kulusuk (37°11′W corresponding to UTC-02:28) are located outside the UTC-03:00 ± 00:30 zone, but still use the same time zone as the capital Nuuk (51°44′W corresponding to UTC-03:26:56)

Atlantic Time The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time—called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)—by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC), resulting in UTC−04:00. AST is observed in parts of North America ...

UTC-04:00 as standard time, and UTC-03:00 as

, with transition dates according to the United States rules. *The

Daylight saving time

All of Greenland uses

, except for the northeast coast. The transition dates are according to the European Union rules, except for the Thule Air Base which uses United States transition dates and where the below description is not valid. Daylight saving time starts at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in March and ends same time on the last Sunday in October each year, simultaneously in all affected areas. This means that in Denmark proper, the transition is at 02:00 local standard time (03:00 daylight saving time), and in the Faroe Islands one hour earlier. In most of Greenland the transition takes place at 22:00 local standard time on the day before (23:00 daylight saving time), four hours before Copenhagen.

History

The first time a common time was used in Denmark, was in 1890, when Copenhagen local time was used as railway time. This was GMT+0:50:20 from Greenwich. In 1890 this time was introduced as a standard time for Denmark. In 1894, Denmark connected to the international time zones, using Greenwich plus one hour. This is the local time of eastern Bornholm, leaving 99.5% of the country west of the time meridian (15°E), which has triggered some sarcastic comments (changing from Copenhagen time to

time). However all of the country is located east of Greenwich +00:30 (7.5°E). Daylight saving time was used in the years 1916, 1940, 1945-1948 and is used from 1980. The Faroe Islands introduced Greenwich Mean Time in 1908, and Iceland (then a Danish area) introduced GMT-01:00 at the same time (changed to GMT, permanent daylight saving time, in 1968). West Greenland introduced GMT-03:00 in 1916. Daylight saving time was introduced in the Faroe Islands in 1981. Greenland will move the time zone forward one hour and cease seasonal clock changes in 25 March 2023, after that using UTC-02:00 year around.

IANA time zone database

Data for Denmark directly from zone.tab of the

IANA time zone database The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert is its current editor and maintainer, with the organizational backi ...

. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself.

References

{{Americas topic, Time in Time in Denmark