The zodiac year starts with Aries, from March 21 to April 19, and ends with Pisces, from February 19 to March 20. Each of the twelve signs covers about a month. The first and last day of every sign can move by a day depending on the year and the time zone, so the dates below come with the exact changeover times for 2027.
Zodiac sign dates in order
These are the date ranges in common use in the US and the UK, in the traditional order of the signs.
| Sign | Symbol | Dates | Element |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Ram | March 21 – April 19 | Fire |
| Taurus | Bull | April 20 – May 20 | Earth |
| Gemini | Twins | May 21 – June 20 | Air |
| Cancer | Crab | June 21 – July 22 | Water |
| Leo | Lion | July 23 – August 22 | Fire |
| Virgo | Maiden | August 23 – September 22 | Earth |
| Libra | Scales | September 23 – October 22 | Air |
| Scorpio | Scorpion | October 23 – November 21 | Water |
| Sagittarius | Archer | November 22 – December 21 | Fire |
| Capricorn | Sea-goat | December 22 – January 19 | Earth |
| Aquarius | Water-bearer | January 20 – February 18 | Air |
| Pisces | Fishes | February 19 – March 20 | Water |
Other lists may start or end a sign one day earlier or later. Neither version is wrong. The real boundary is a moment in time, not a date, and it moves a little every year.
Find the sign for any birthday
For a birthday well inside a range, the table is all you need. For any date, our Birthday Profile tool gives the zodiac sign together with the birthstone, the birth flower and the Chinese zodiac animal. Enter the day, the month and the year.
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Why do the dates change from year to year?
A zodiac sign is defined by where the Sun is. Over a year the Sun appears to travel a full circle against the sky. Western astrology divides that circle into twelve equal parts of 30 degrees and starts counting at the point the Sun reaches at the March equinox. That is why Aries begins on the first day of spring, Cancer at the June solstice, Libra at the September equinox and Capricorn at the December solstice.
The Sun returns to the same point every 365.24 days, but a calendar year has 365. Each year the changeovers come about six hours later, and a leap day pulls them back. The start of Aries shows the pattern: 10:46 a.m. Eastern Time on March 20 in 2026, 4:25 p.m. on March 20 in 2027, and 10:17 p.m. on March 19 in 2028.
Time zones add a second shift. The Sun enters a sign at one instant for the whole world. If that instant comes late in the evening in New York, it is already the next day in London.
Exact zodiac sign dates for 2027
The table shows the moment the Sun enters each sign in 2027, in US Eastern Time and UK time. The times are read from NASA's JPL Horizons ephemeris. The four that coincide with the seasons match the U.S. Naval Observatory's equinox and solstice times, and all twelve agree with published astrological tables to within a minute.
| Sun enters | US Eastern Time | UK time |
|---|---|---|
| Aquarius | January 20, 2:30 a.m. EST | January 20, 07:30 GMT |
| Pisces | February 18, 4:34 p.m. EST | February 18, 21:34 GMT |
| Aries | March 20, 4:25 p.m. EDT | March 20, 20:25 GMT |
| Taurus | April 20, 3:18 a.m. EDT | April 20, 08:18 BST |
| Gemini | May 21, 2:19 a.m. EDT | May 21, 07:19 BST |
| Cancer | June 21, 10:11 a.m. EDT | June 21, 15:11 BST |
| Leo | July 22, 9:05 p.m. EDT | July 23, 02:05 BST |
| Virgo | August 23, 4:15 a.m. EDT | August 23, 09:15 BST |
| Libra | September 23, 2:02 a.m. EDT | September 23, 07:02 BST |
| Scorpio | October 23, 11:33 a.m. EDT | October 23, 16:33 BST |
| Sagittarius | November 22, 8:17 a.m. EST | November 22, 13:17 GMT |
| Capricorn | December 21, 9:42 p.m. EST | December 22, 02:42 GMT |
Compare this with the first table. In 2027 Pisces begins on February 18, Aries on March 20 and, in the US, Leo on July 22 and Capricorn on December 21, each a day earlier than the usual list. In the UK, Leo and Capricorn keep their usual dates of July 23 and December 22. The year begins in Capricorn, which started on December 21, 2026.
What does "born on the cusp" mean?
The cusp is the boundary between two signs. People born on the first or last day of a sign often find that one list gives them one sign and another list gives the neighbor. Both lists are rounding the same moving boundary.
The sign itself is not a blend. At any instant the Sun is in one sign or the other. To settle a cusp birthday you need three things: the year, the time of birth and the place, so that the birth time can be compared with the changeover time for that year.
Take July 22, 2027. The Sun enters Leo at 9:05 p.m. Eastern Time. A baby born in Chicago at 7:00 p.m. Central Time, which is 8:00 p.m. Eastern, arrives an hour before the changeover and is a Cancer. A baby born in Boston at 10:00 p.m. is a Leo. A baby born in London at the same instant as the second child, at 03:00 BST on July 23, is a Leo too.
Are the signs the same as the constellations?
They share names and nothing else. A sign is one of twelve equal slices of the Sun's path, fixed to the seasons. A constellation is a pattern of stars. Astronomers recognize 88 constellations, and they are of very unequal size, while every sign is exactly one twelfth of the circle.
So a sign tells you where the Sun is along its yearly path, measured from the March equinox. It does not tell you which stars are behind the Sun. The two systems measure different things, and the sign dates in this article follow the astrological one.
Is astrology a science?
No, and NASA draws the line plainly. Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space and works from evidence and data. Astrology is the belief that the positions of stars and planets can describe a person or predict events. NASA notes that its claims are not based on scientific evidence, and also that it is important to some cultural traditions.
The dates on this page are astronomy: the Sun's position can be calculated to the minute. What a sign is said to mean is tradition. The Chinese zodiac works differently again and assigns an animal to the whole year; see our guide to the Chinese New Year animals.