World Days Calendar

What counts as a world day

A world day, or international day, is a date set aside every year to draw the world's attention to one subject: clean water, a disease, a group of people, an animal, a language or a piece of history. Governments, schools, charities and newsrooms use these days to explain the subject, raise money and press for change.

Most of them come from the United Nations. A country proposes a day, the UN General Assembly votes on a resolution, and the day goes on the UN's official list. Other days are set by UN agencies — World Health Day by the World Health Organization, World Poetry Day by UNESCO, World Food Day by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Many more were started by international federations, charities and campaigns, such as World Heart Day by the World Heart Federation or World Alzheimer's Day by Alzheimer's Disease International.

What is in this calendar

• All 238 days and 10 weeks on the UN list of international days, as published on un.org when this calendar last checked it (16 October 2026). Each card gives the resolution that created the day where the UN lists one, for example A/RES/35/70 for World Food Day.
• 100 more world days that are kept internationally under that name by a known organisation — nearly half of them health days such as World Cancer Day, World Heart Day and World Sight Day, along with days like International Nurses Day, World Music Day and Olympic Day.
• The national day of every country: the 193 member states of the UN and the two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine. Where a country has two major national holidays, both are shown — India's Republic Day and Independence Day, for example.

Left out on purpose: religious festivals (apart from Vesak and Nowruz, which are on the UN list), each country's other public holidays, and the many unofficial "national something day" fun days that circulate online.

Days that move

Most world days keep the same date every year. Some are tied to a weekday instead, and one follows the moon. Pick any year with the arrows under the dial and the calendar works them out.

Two national days follow other calendars: Iran's Islamic Revolution Victory Day falls on 22 Bahman in the Iranian calendar (10 or 11 February), and Israel's Independence Day on 5 Iyar in the Hebrew calendar, moved by a day or two when it would fall next to the Sabbath. The calendar works both out with the calendar support built into your browser.

Why one day lasts fifty hours

A date does not arrive everywhere at once. It begins first in the Line Islands of Kiribati, fourteen hours ahead of Greenwich, and it ends last on two uninhabited US islands, Baker and Howland, twelve hours behind it. From the first midnight to the last, any one date is under way somewhere on Earth for about fifty hours. The map shows this live: gold dots are places where it is the chosen date right now. Press Watch the day go round the world to see the whole fifty hours in a few seconds, or drag the slider to any moment. Hover over a dot, or tap it, to see the local time there.

The map gives each dot the official time zone of its country, taken from the time-zone list your browser uses, so summer time is included. Where a country has several zones the border between them is drawn roughly, and a country too small to show at this size appears as one dot.

Putting world days in your own calendar

1. Tap Add to calendar on one day, or use Add to my calendar above the year list for every day that is switched on in the groups under the dial (switch groups off first if you only want, say, the health days).
2. An .ics file is downloaded. Open it on a phone, or import it: in Google Calendar on a computer go to Settings → Import & export; in Apple Calendar use File → Import; in Outlook open the file or use Add calendar → Upload from file.
3. The days repeat every year by themselves, including the ones tied to a weekday. Vesak and the two national days on other calendars are added year by year for the next five years.

For schools and quizzes

Lists of "important days" are used for school assemblies, notice boards, general-knowledge quizzes and competitive exams. Print the list prints the year month by month on plain paper, with only the groups that are switched on. Search finds a day by any word in its name or description, so "water", "tiger" or "Gandhi" will find what you are looking for.

Where the information comes from

UN days, their dates and their resolution numbers come from the UN's list of international days and weeks. The other world days were checked against the organisations that run them, and national days against published lists of national days. Days change: the UN adds new ones, and a country can move its national day. If you find a date that is wrong or missing, please tell us through the contact page. More ways to plan the year: the Countdown Poster makes a "days until" picture for any date, and the Time Zone Converter shows the time in any city.