Leap Day

All about Leap Day 🐸

Leap day is February 29, and it only shows up in leap years — roughly every four years. It exists because a year is about 365.24 days long, so the calendar needs an extra day to stay lined up with the seasons.

That makes it the rarest date to count down to on this whole site.

How people celebrate Leap Day

• Celebrating 'leaplings' born on February 29
• Leap year proposals, an old Irish custom
• Bonus-day parties and events
• Explaining leap years to anyone who will listen

Fun facts

• Years divisible by 100 are not leap years unless also divisible by 400.
• The year 2000 was a leap year; 1900 was not.
• About 5 million people worldwide were born on February 29.

The countdown above updates live in your own time zone, so the days, hours, minutes, and seconds always match your local clock.