Overview of the time zones used in Brazil
Time in Brazil
is calculated using
standard time
, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard
time zones
: UTC?02:00, UTC?03:00, UTC?04:00 and UTC?05:00.
[1]
Time zones
[
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]
Fernando de Noronha time (UTC?02:00)
[
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]
This is the standard time zone only on a few small offshore
Atlantic
islands. The only such island with a permanent population is
Fernando de Noronha
, with 3,167 inhabitants (2022 census), 0.0016% of
Brazil
's population.
[2]
The other islands (
Trindade and Martim Vaz
,
Rocas Atoll
and
Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago
) either are totally uninhabited or have small seasonally rotating
Brazilian Navy
garrisons or teams of scientists.
Brasilia time (UTC?03:00)
[
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]
The main time zone of Brazil comprises the states in the
South
,
Southeast
and
Northeast
regions (except the small islands mentioned above), plus the states of
Goias
,
Tocantins
,
Para
and
Amapa
, and the
Federal District
, which includes the national capital city,
Brasilia
. About 93% of the Brazilian population live in this time zone, which covers about 60% of the country's land area.
[2]
It includes 26 of the 28
largest metropolitan areas in Brazil
.
Amazon time (UTC?04:00)
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]
This time zone is used in the states of
Mato Grosso
,
Mato Grosso do Sul
,
Rondonia
,
Roraima
, and most of
Amazonas
. Although this time zone covers about 36% of the land area of Brazil (an area larger than
Argentina
), only about 6% of the country's population live there (about 12 million people, slightly more than the city of
Sao Paulo
).
[2]
Until 2008, the areas of the state of
Para
west of the
Xingu River
and north of the
Amazon River
were also part of this time zone; then they joined the rest of the state in observing Brasilia time (UTC?03:00). Although other changes to Brazilian time zones enacted at that time have since been reverted (see below), western and northern Para still remain in UTC?03:00.
Acre time (UTC?05:00)
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]
This time zone was reinstated in 2013, after having been abolished for over five years. It is used in the far-western tip of the country, which includes the entire state of
Acre
and the southwestern portion of the state of
Amazonas
(west of a line connecting the cities of
Tabatinga
and
Porto Acre
).
[a]
These areas cover only about 4% of the Brazilian territory (although that is still about the size of
Germany
) and have only about 0.5% of the country's population (little more than one million people).
[2]
On 24 June 2008, these areas advanced their clocks by an hour, so that they became part of the UTC?04:00 time zone.
[7]
However, in a
non-binding referendum
held on 31 October 2010, a slight majority of Acre voters voted in favour of returning the state to UTC?05:00.
[8]
On 30 October 2013,
Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff
enacted Law 12876, establishing that the time zone switch would occur on Sunday, 10 November 2013.
[9]
Since then, the state of Acre and the southwestern part of the state of Amazonas
[a]
are again 5 hours behind UTC.
Unofficial observance
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]
Unofficially, 32 municipalities in eastern
Mato Grosso
,
[b]
located in the
Araguaia
valley, observe UTC?03:00, Brasilia time.
[10]
[11]
[12]
Unofficially, some municipalities in eastern
Mato Grosso do Sul
, such as
Bataguassu
,
Aparecida do Taboado
,
Cassilandia
and
Chapadao do Sul
, also observe UTC?03:00, Brasilia time.
[13]
[14]
Daylight saving time
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]
Brazil observed
daylight saving time
(DST;
Portuguese
:
horario de verao
, "summer time") in the years of 1931?1933, 1949?1953, 1963?1968 and 1985?2019. Initially it applied to the whole country, but from 1988 it applied only to part of the country, usually the southern regions, where DST is more useful due to a larger seasonal variation in daylight duration. It typically lasted from October or November to February or March.
[15]
The most recent DST rule specified advancing the time by one hour during the period from 00:00 on the first Sunday in November to 00:00 on the third Sunday in February (postponed by one week if the latter fell on
carnival
), applicable only to the
South
,
Southeast
and
Central-West
regions,
[15]
which comprise about 65% of the Brazilian population.
[2]
During DST, Brasilia time moved from UTC?03:00 to UTC?02:00; the other states that did not follow DST observed a change of the offset to Brasilia time.
Brazil abolished DST in 2019.
[15]
IANA time zone database
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]
The
IANA time zone database
contains 16 zones for Brazil. Columns marked with * are from the file
zone.tab
of the database.
c.c.*
|
coordinates*
|
TZ*
|
comments*
|
UTC offset
|
DST
|
BR
|
?0351?03225
|
America/Noronha
|
Atlantic islands
|
?02:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0127?04829
|
America/Belem
|
Para (east), Amapa
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0343?03830
|
America/Fortaleza
|
Brazil (northeast: MA, PI, CE, RN, PB)
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0803?03454
|
America/Recife
|
Pernambuco
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0712?04812
|
America/Araguaina
|
Tocantins
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0940?03543
|
America/Maceio
|
Alagoas, Sergipe
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?1259?03831
|
America/Bahia
|
Bahia
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?2332?04637
|
America/Sao_Paulo
|
Brazil (southeast: GO, DF, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS)
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?2027?05437
|
America/Campo_Grande
|
Mato Grosso do Sul
|
?04:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?1535?05605
|
America/Cuiaba
|
Mato Grosso
|
?04:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0226?05452
|
America/Santarem
|
Para (west)
|
?03:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0846?06354
|
America/Porto_Velho
|
Rondonia
|
?04:00
|
-
|
BR
|
+0249?06040
|
America/Boa_Vista
|
Roraima
|
?04:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0308?06001
|
America/Manaus
|
Amazonas (east)
|
?04:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0640?06952
|
America/Eirunepe
|
Amazonas (west)
|
?05:00
|
-
|
BR
|
?0958?06748
|
America/Rio_Branco
|
Acre
|
?05:00
|
-
|
See also
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
a
b
The municipalities of
Atalaia do Norte
,
Eirunepe
,
Envira
,
Guajara
and
Ipixuna
are located entirely west of the line. Part of the municipalities of
Benjamin Constant
and
Tabatinga
, including their seats and most of their population, are also located west of the line. Part of the municipalities of
Boca do Acre
,
Itamarati
,
Jutai
,
Pauini
and
Sao Paulo de Olivenca
are located west of the line, but their seats and almost their entire population are located east of it.
[3]
Amatura
and
Labrea
are sometimes cited as municipalities in UTC?05:00,
[4]
[5]
but they are located entirely east of the line. The seat of Labrea uses UTC?04:00.
[6]
- ^
Agua Boa
,
Alto Araguaia
,
Alto Boa Vista
,
Alto Taquari
,
Araguaiana
,
Araguainha
,
Barra do Garcas
,
Bom Jesus do Araguaia
,
Campinapolis
,
Canabrava do Norte
,
Canarana
,
Cocalinho
,
Confresa
,
General Carneiro
,
Luciara
,
Nova Nazare
,
Nova Xavantina
,
Novo Santo Antonio
,
Novo Sao Joaquim
,
Pontal do Araguaia
,
Ponte Branca
,
Porto Alegre do Norte
,
Querencia
,
Ribeirao Cascalheira
,
Ribeiraozinho
,
Santa Cruz do Xingu
,
Santa Terezinha
,
Sao Felix do Araguaia
,
Sao Jose do Xingu
,
Serra Nova Dourada
,
Torixoreu
and
Vila Rica
.
References
[
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]
- ^
Decree no. 2784, of 18 June 1913
, Presidency of Brazil.
(in Portuguese)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Tabela 4714 ? populacao residente, area territorial e densidade demografica"
[Table 4714 ? resident population, territorial area and population density] (in Portuguese).
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
. 2022.
- ^
"Mapa dos locais de votacao"
[Map of voting locations] (in Portuguese). Regional Electoral Court of Amazonas. 9 August 2022.
- ^
"Votacao em todo o pais seguira o horario de Brasilia (DF)"
[Voting in the whole country will follow Brasilia time] (in Portuguese). Superior Electoral Court. 30 October 2022.
- ^
"Candidados do Amazonas devem ficar atentos ao fuso horario"
[Applicants from Amazonas should be mindful of the time zone] (in Portuguese). Ministry of Education of Brazil. 31 October 2018.
- ^
"Pregao eletronico nº 9/2022"
[Electronic auction no. 9/2022] (in Portuguese). Federal Institute of Amazonas. 25 July 2022.
- ^
"Brazil Abolishes Its Fourth Time Zone in 2008"
. Retrieved
2008-06-25
.
- ^
"Time Zone Change is Possible in Acre, Brazil"
.
- ^
Subdirectorate for Legal Affairs.
"Lei nº 12.876, de 30 de outubro de 2013"
[Law no. 12,876 of 30 October 2013] (in Portuguese). The Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
. Retrieved
11 September
2020
.
- ^
"No clock change for parts of Mato Grosso, Brazil"
. Timeanddate.com. 25 October 2011.
- ^
"Municipios do Araguaia trocam horario de Brasilia por de MT durante horario de verao"
[Araguaia municipalities swap Brasilia time for that of Mato Grosso during summer time] (in Portuguese). Olhar Direto. 19 October 2013.
- ^
"Comeca horario de verao e Araguaia passa a seguir horario de MT"
[Summer time begins and Araguaia starts following Mato Grosso time] (in Portuguese). Agua Boa News. 10 October 2015.
- ^
"Por intermedio de Eduardo Rocha, tecnico da Energisa ira falar sobre o fornecimento de Bataguassu"
[By mediation of Eduardo Rocha, an Energisa technician will talk about the supply of Bataguassu] (in Portuguese). Jornal do Estado. 24 November 2017.
- ^
"Um estado, 'dois' fusos: cidades de MS geram confusao e curiosidade por diferencas no horario"
[One state, 'two' time zones: cities of MS generate confusion and curiosity due to differences in time] (in Portuguese). G1. 27 December 2023.
- ^
a
b
c
"Decrees on daylight saving time in Brazil"
(in Portuguese).
National Observatory of Brazil
. Retrieved
2019-11-25
.
External links
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]