Leap years — rules, next leap year and full list
A leap year has 366 days instead of 365, with the extra day added as 29 February. 2026 is not a leap year ; the next one is 2028. Everything on this page is computed from the Gregorian calendar rules.
Is 2026 a leap year?
No — 365 days
February has 28 days
Next leap year
2028
in 2 years
Previous leap year
2024
2 years ago
Average year length
365.2425 days
Gregorian calendar
The leap year rule
The Gregorian calendar decides leap years with three tests, applied in order:
- If the year is divisible by 4, it is a leap year…
- …unless it is also divisible by 100, in which case it is a common year…
- …unless it is also divisible by 400, in which case it is a leap year after all.
That is why 2024 and 2028 are leap years, 1900 and 2100 are not, and 2000 was. The pattern exists because the Earth's orbit takes about 365.2422 days: adding a day every fourth year overshoots slightly, and skipping three century years out of every four brings the average down to 365.2425 days — within about 27 seconds a year of the true figure.
Every leap year from 1900 to 2100
Note the two gaps: 1900 and 2100 are century years not divisible by 400, so eight years pass between 1896 → 1904 and between 2096 → 2104.
- 1904
- 1908
- 1912
- 1916
- 1920
- 1924
- 1928
- 1932
- 1936
- 1940
- 1944
- 1948
- 1952
- 1956
- 1960
- 1964
- 1968
- 1972
- 1976
- 1980
- 1984
- 1988
- 1992
- 1996
- 2000
- 2004
- 2008
- 2012
- 2016
- 2020
- 2024
- 2028 next
- 2032
- 2036
- 2040
- 2044
- 2048
- 2052
- 2056
- 2060
- 2064
- 2068
- 2072
- 2076
- 2080
- 2084
- 2088
- 2092
- 2096
Frequently asked questions
Is 2026 a leap year?
No. 2026 is not divisible by 4, so February 2026 has 28 days and the year has 365 days. The next leap year is 2028.
When is the next leap year?
The next leap year is 2028, so the next 29 February falls on Tuesday, 29 February 2028. After that, leap years continue every four years: 2032, 2036 and so on.
What is the leap year rule?
A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4 — unless it is divisible by 100, in which case it must also be divisible by 400. So 2024 and 2028 are leap years, 1900 and 2100 are not, but 2000 was. The rule keeps the calendar aligned with the tropical year of roughly 365.2422 days.
Why do we have leap years at all?
The Earth takes about 365.2422 days to orbit the Sun, not 365. Without correction the calendar would drift about one day every four years, and after a few centuries the seasons would fall in the wrong months. Adding a day roughly every four years — with the century exception — keeps the average calendar year at 365.2425 days, close enough that the error is only about one day in 3,000 years.
Why was 2000 a leap year but 1900 was not?
Both are century years, and century years are only leap years when divisible by 400. 1900 ÷ 400 is not a whole number, so 1900 had 365 days; 2000 ÷ 400 = 5, so 2000 had 366. The next century year that is a leap year is 2400 — 2100, 2200 and 2300 are all common years.
When do people born on 29 February celebrate their birthday?
People born on 29 February — sometimes called "leaplings" — get a true calendar birthday only in leap years. In common years most celebrate on 28 February or 1 March; for legal purposes, jurisdictions differ on which day age changes in a non-leap year. Our age calculator handles 29 February birthdays correctly.
Are leap seconds related to leap years?
No — they correct different things. Leap years fix the mismatch between the calendar and the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Leap seconds are occasionally added to UTC to track slow irregularities in the Earth's rotation, and they are scheduled by observation rather than by a formula.