Europe · Northern Europe · Sovereign state
Current time in Iceland
A single time zone at null.
Sunday, May 31, 2026
About Iceland's time
A single time zone.
Iceland lives on the same clock all year round—Greenwich Mean Time, all the time. No spring forward, no fall back, one simple zone that covers the whole country.
Major cities
Cities of Iceland.
History
How Iceland keeps time.
## How Iceland Ended Up on GMT
Iceland has a surprisingly straightforward timezone story. Before standardization, Iceland's sagas and local tradition reckoned time by a system of "natural hours" that divided the daylight differently from the familiar 24-hour convention. By the late 19th century, with the advent of telegraphs and steamship schedules, the need for a formal, internationally recognized standard became unavoidable.
In 1907, Iceland formally adopted Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+00:00) as its standard. This was a practical stretch—even Reykjavik lies well west of the Prime Meridian, closer to UTC−01:00 in solar terms—but the island's tight connections with the wider world made the choice pragmatic rather than geographical.
When a number of European countries briefly flirted with daylight saving in the interwar period, Iceland tried it too. Between 1917 and 1921, and then again intermittently through the late 1930s and during World War II, Iceland shifted the clocks forward in summer. But each time the experiment wore off quickly.
After years of debate, Iceland officially abandoned daylight saving time effective April 7, 1968. The government chose to stay permanently on what had become winter time—GMT throughout the year. Critics at the time worried about dark mornings in winter, but in practice Iceland is almost always on summer-clock time by solar reckoning: during June the sun barely sets at all, and shifting clocks would have done very little.
Did you know?
Things about Iceland's time.
## A Clock That Never Changes
Iceland is one of the few countries in western Europe with zero daylight saving observance. The UK springs forward and back, France does it, Ireland does it—but not Iceland. If you're scheduling a call from London while Britain is in British Summer Time, Iceland will be an hour behind where you'd expect.
The other curiosity is the mismatch between the clock and the sun. Because Iceland uses GMT effectively as "permanent summer time," Reykjavik is about an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of its solar time in midwinter and almost two hours ahead around the summer solstice. But in June, with its famous midnight sun, the clock difference hardly matters; in January, when daylight is scarce, people simply accept late-rising schedules and the occasional afternoon commute in darkness.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Iceland's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- Does Iceland observe daylight saving time?
- No. Iceland has used GMT+00:00 since 1968 with no seasonal clock changes.
- Is Iceland in the same timezone as the UK?
- All year Iceland matches Greenwich Mean Time. The UK also uses GMT in winter, but shifts to British Summer Time (GMT+1) in summer. So Iceland is one hour behind the UK from roughly the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
- What is the timezone for the whole of Iceland?
- There is a single zone—Atlantic/Reykjavik—used everywhere in Iceland.
- Is Reykjavik solar noon close to 12:00?
- No. Reykjavik's longitude corresponds more closely to UTC−01:00, so solar noon is typically around 13:10–13:20 in winter and even later in summer.
- What date did Iceland abandon DST?
- April 7, 1968. The country has been permanently on GMT ever since.
- Do Icelandic businesses adjust working hours instead of changing clocks?
- It's common for daily rhythms to naturally shift between the long-light summers and short-light winters, but there is no official schedule change linked to DST.
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