The zodiac signs and dates run in a fixed order: from Aries, which usually starts on 20 March, to Pisces, which usually ends on 19 March. A sign's dates are the part of the year when the Sun is in that 30° section of the zodiac, so they follow the Sun's position, not a fixed calendar.
What are the zodiac signs and dates?
The usual dates below use the start date that was most common from 1950 to 2049, in UTC. Each sign ends the day before the next one starts. The third column shows every start date in those 100 years, and the last column the next start after 2 November 2026.
| Sign | Usual dates | Start date, 1950 to 2049 | Next start (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | 20 Mar to 19 Apr | 19, 20 or 21 Mar | 20 Mar 2027, 20:25 |
| Taurus | 20 Apr to 20 May | 19 or 20 Apr | 20 Apr 2027, 07:17 |
| Gemini | 21 May to 20 Jun | 20 or 21 May | 21 May 2027, 06:18 |
| Cancer | 21 Jun to 21 Jul | 20, 21 or 22 Jun | 21 Jun 2027, 14:11 |
| Leo | 22 Jul to 22 Aug | 22 or 23 Jul | 23 Jul 2027, 01:04 |
| Virgo | 23 Aug to 22 Sep | 22 or 23 Aug | 23 Aug 2027, 08:14 |
| Libra | 23 Sep to 22 Oct | 22 or 23 Sep | 23 Sep 2027, 06:01 |
| Scorpio | 23 Oct to 21 Nov | 22, 23 or 24 Oct | 23 Oct 2027, 15:33 |
| Sagittarius | 22 Nov to 20 Dec | 21, 22 or 23 Nov | 22 Nov 2026, 07:24 |
| Capricorn | 21 Dec to 19 Jan | 21 or 22 Dec | 21 Dec 2026, 20:50 |
| Aquarius | 20 Jan to 17 Feb | 19, 20 or 21 Jan | 20 Jan 2027, 07:30 |
| Pisces | 18 Feb to 19 Mar | 18 or 19 Feb | 18 Feb 2027, 21:34 |
These are dates for the tropical zodiac, which starts at 0° Aries, the Sun's position at the March equinox. NinePath uses the tropical zodiac. Sidereal systems measure the signs against the stars and give different dates.
Why do the sign dates change from year to year?
A year is not a whole number of days, so the Sun's return to 0° Aries drifts through the calendar. In UTC, the Sun entered Aries on 20 March 2026 at 14:46. It enters again on 20 March 2027 at 20:25, 5 hours 39 minutes later, and the leap day in 2028 pulls the start back to 02:17 on 20 March 2028. So a boundary can move by a day between years.
Every sign is 30 degrees wide, but the Sun doesn't spend the same time in each. Between November 2026 and November 2027, the Sun spends about 29.4 days in Capricorn, the shortest, and about 31.5 days in Cancer, the longest.
Local dates can differ. The Aries start of 20:25 UTC on 20 March 2027 is 05:25 on 21 March in Tokyo (UTC+9).
Do I need my birth time to know my sign?
Only if you were born on a boundary day, a date when the Sun can change sign. Then compare your birth time, converted to UTC, with the start time for your birth year.
- D20
- M3
- Y2027
- h10
Sun enters Aries 20 Mar 2027, 20:25 UTC. 10:00 is 10 h 25 min earlier, so the Sun is at about 359.6°, still before 0° Aries.
The sample birth has a Pisces Sun, although the usual dates list 20 March as Aries.
The rising sign always needs your birth time and place; see rising sign vs sun sign.
What this means for your day
For your day
Do
Check the start time for your birth year if you were born on a boundary day.
Don't
Don't trust a fixed date table on a boundary day without the birth time.
Questions people ask
Why do websites list different dates for the same sign?
Tables are made from different years, time zones and rounding. On the boundary days, each one is right for some years and wrong for others.
What is my zodiac sign?
Find your birth date in the table above. If it falls on a boundary day, compare your birth time in UTC with the start time for your birth year.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Sun sign astrology. The start and end dates of a sun sign are approximate and may differ from one year to another by a day or so, because a year is not a whole number of days.
- Wikipedia: Astrological sign. Aries starts at the First Point of Aries, the Sun's position at the March equinox, which falls between 19 and 21 March.
- Astronomy Engine 2.1.19 (open-source library by Don Cross). Every start time and sign length in this article, computed in UTC and rounded to the nearest minute.