Time in Iceland

Iceland observes UTC±00:00 year-round, known as Greenwich Mean Time or Western European Time. UTC±00:00 was adopted on 7 April 1968 – in order for Iceland to be in sync with Europe – replacing UTC−01:00, which had been the standard time zone since 16 November 1907. Iceland previously observed daylight saving time, moving the clock forward one hour, between 1917 and 1921, and 1939 and 1968. The start and end dates varied, as decided by the government. Between 1941 and 1946, daylight saving time commenced on the first Sunday in March and ended in late October, and between 1947 and 1967 it commenced on the first Sunday in April, in all instances since 1941 occurring and ending at 02:00. Since 1994, there have been an increasing number of proposals made to the Althing to reintroduce daylight saving time for a variety of reasons, but all such proposals and resolutions have been rejected.

Most of Iceland lies within the geographical UTC−01:00 offset, including the capital Reykjavík, while the westernmost points of Iceland located west of 22.5° West, including Ísafjörður, lie within the geographical UTC−02:00 offset. Despite this, Iceland observes UTC±00:00 in order to be in sync with Europe, which results in noon being 88 minutes behind other countries in the same offset. Health experts have argued that this gives Icelandic teenagers social jet lag as the daylight is a misalignment of biological and social time, which consequently results in detrimental health effects. Despite this, however, the government released a statement in 2020 announcing they will not be switching time zones.