Time Zones| Zone areas | Time now | January 2026 | July 2026 | Largest cities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canary | --:-- | UTC | UTC+1 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Telde |
| Madrid, Ceuta | --:-- | UTC+1 | UTC+2 | Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza |
How many times does Spain have?
The IANA database lists 3 separate zone areas for Spain. Grouped by the time they actually show through 2026, that makes 2 different clocks, listed above. The offsets in use run from UTC to UTC+1 in January.
3 of the 3 areas change their clocks during the year. Open an area to see its dates.
Planning across the country
When you fix a call or a broadcast for people in several parts of Spain, give the time with its zone, or use the converter to show every zone at once.
Where most people are
Measured by the people living in towns of 15,000 or more (GeoNames figures), the busiest clock in Spain is the one kept in Madrid, UTC+1 in January: about 34 million people, or 94% of the total across all the zone areas. Next comes the clock of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (UTC) with about 2 million.
A worked example
When it is 9:00 am in Madrid in January, it is 8:00 am in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The widest gap inside the country
The two clocks that are farthest apart differ by 1 hour in January, and by the same amount in July. On the map, the main cities run from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at about 15.4° west to Melilla at about 2.9° west. By the sun alone those two are about 50 minutes apart.
The sun across Spain
Clocks are set by law, but the sun keeps its own time. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the most westerly of the main cities (about 15.4° west), the sun is highest at about 1:02 pm by the clock in January. In Melilla, the most easterly (about 2.9° west), it is highest at about 1:12 pm. The closer that figure is to 12:00, the better the clock fits the daylight in that city. From north to south the length of the day differs too: around 21 June the sun is up for about 15 hours 4 minutes in Madrid and about 13 hours 56 minutes in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Spain and the rest of the world
When it is 12:00 noon in Madrid, it is 4:30 pm in India in January and 3:30 pm in July; 11:00 am in London; 6:00 am in New York. Other parts of Spain are earlier or later than that by the amounts in the table at the top of this page.
Clock changes in 2026
In Madrid the dates are: Sunday 29 March 2026: at 2:00 am clocks go forward 1 hour to 3:00 am; Sunday 25 October 2026: at 3:00 am clocks go back 1 hour to 2:00 am.