A regular year has 365 days, which is 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes or 31,536,000 seconds. A leap year has one extra day: 366 days, 8,784 hours, 527,040 minutes or 31,622,400 seconds. The tables below cover every common unit, and the sections after them explain where the numbers come from.
Time in a year: quick reference
| Unit | Common year (365 days) | Leap year (366 days) |
|---|---|---|
| Months | 12 | 12 |
| Weeks | 52 weeks + 1 day (52.14) | 52 weeks + 2 days (52.29) |
| Days | 365 | 366 |
| Hours | 8,760 | 8,784 |
| Minutes | 525,600 | 527,040 |
| Seconds | 31,536,000 | 31,622,400 |
If "525,600 minutes" sounds familiar, it's the opening line of the song "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent, which uses exactly this calculation.
Smaller units: days, weeks and months
| Period | Hours | Minutes | Seconds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 1 | 60 | 3,600 |
| 1 day | 24 | 1,440 | 86,400 |
| 1 week | 168 | 10,080 | 604,800 |
| 30-day month | 720 | 43,200 | 2,592,000 |
| 31-day month | 744 | 44,640 | 2,678,400 |
| Average month (30.44 days) | 730.5 | 43,830 | 2,629,746 |
These numbers are simple multiplication: 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. For instance, 24 × 60 × 60 = 86,400 seconds in a day, and 86,400 × 365 = 31,536,000 seconds in a year.
Is a year really 365 days?
Not quite. The Earth takes about 365.2422 days to go from one spring equinox to the next. That is the tropical year, the one that controls the seasons. A 365-day calendar falls almost a quarter of a day behind each year, so every four years we add February 29 to catch up.
Adding a day every four years slightly overcorrects (365.25 days), so the Gregorian calendar skips three leap days every 400 years: century years such as 1900 and 2100 are not leap years unless they divide by 400, as 2000 did. The result is an average calendar year of 365.2425 days, accurate to about one day every 3,000 years. Our leap year guide explains the full rule, and the leap year checker tells you whether any year is a leap year.
Other kinds of "year"
- Sidereal year (one orbit measured against the stars): about 365.2564 days, roughly 20 minutes longer than the tropical year.
- Lunar year (12 lunar months): about 354.37 days, the basis of the Islamic calendar.
- Fiscal year: any 12-month accounting period; see fiscal year vs calendar year.
How many days are left this year?
The number of days left changes every day, of course. On October 7, 2026 there are 85 days left until December 31, counting the 31st. Check the live number on the days left in the year page, or watch the year tick by second by second on the year progress page.
Handy conversions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many hours in a week? | 168 (or 40 in a standard work week) |
| How many minutes in a day? | 1,440 |
| How many seconds in a day? | 86,400 |
| How many days is 1,000 hours? | 41 days and 16 hours |
| How many days is 1 million seconds? | about 11.6 days |
| How many years is 1 billion seconds? | about 31.7 years |
For hour-to-day conversions, see hours to days; for working hours, see how many hours are in a week and a month.
Business days, weekends and working hours in a year
Most years have 260 or 261 weekdays (Monday to Friday) and 104 or 105 weekend days. 2026 and 2027 each have 261 weekdays and 52 full weekends. Take away holidays and vacation, and a full-time employee typically works around 230–250 days a year.
Try it: want to know exactly how many seconds you've been alive? Enter your birthday in the age calculator to see your age in years, months, days and hours.
Frequently asked questions
How many days are in 2026?
365. 2026 is not a leap year; the next leap year is 2028, which has 366 days.
How many hours are in a year?
8,760 in a common year and 8,784 in a leap year.
How many seconds are in a year?
31,536,000 in a common year and 31,622,400 in a leap year. Using the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, it's about 31,556,952 seconds.