Leap Year List – When Is the Next Leap Year?

Complete list of leap years

Here are Leap Year Lists in PDF format. Each shows a list of previous leap years, next leap year and upcoming leap years.

DOWNLOAD: Leap year list (in 2 colors)

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Calendar for the next leap year (2028)

Here’s a calendar for the next leap year (year 2028)

Calendar for the previous leap year (2024)

Here’s a calendar for the previous leap year (year 2024)

List of upcoming leap years

Here’s a list of upcoming leap years from current day to year 2124. Note that year 2100 is not a leap year.

	2028	2032	2036	2040
2044	2048	2052	2056	2060
2064	2068	2072	2076	2080
2084	2088	2092	2096	2104
2108	2112	2116	2120	2124

List of Prior leap years

Here’s a list of previous leap years from 1880 to current day. Note that year 1900 was not a leap year.

1880	1884	1888	1892	1896
1904	1908	1912	1916	1920
1924	1928	1932	1936	1940
1944	1948	1952	1956	1960
1964	1968	1972	1976	1980
1984	1988	1992	1996	2000
2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
2024

What is a leap year?

A leap year is a calendar year with an extra day, the 29th of February (leap day), inserted into it.

The earth doesn’t orbit the sun for 365 days. The solar year (or tropical year) is approximately 365.24 days long, so the extra day every four years compensates for the inexact number of days a year.

Leap day is on February 29th.

So, how often do leap years occur?

A leap year occurs every four years, so one year in every fourth year has 366 days instead of the usual 365 when the leap day is added to the calendar.

Why are leap days added to the calendar approximately every four years?

Earth’s orbit around the sun is not 365 days, but a bit more – approximately 365.24 days.

The leap day keeps our calendar year synchronized with the solar or astronomical year and aligned with the astronomical seasons.

Earth takes 24 hours to rotate on its axis, but it takes approximately 365.24 days (not 365 days) for the earth to orbit around the sun. So if we didn’t add a leap day every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar per year.

Over time, this would cause the seasons to shift, and our calendar would no longer match up with the astronomical year.

We include leap days and years in our calendar to keep it accurate with the earth’s revolutions around the sun.

Leap years help to keep our calendar year close to the astronomical year, and leap days allow us to make up for the inexact number of days in a year.

Leap year rules: Is leap year every four years?

DOWNLOAD: Leap year rules – how to calculate if a year is a leap year

Leap year is every four years with an exception:

• The year has to be divisible by 4 (without a remainder) but not by 100. (For example 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not leap years).
• Exception: If the year is divisible by 400 it is a leap year. (For example: year 1600, 2000, 2400…

So the year 1600 was a leap year, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not.

And year 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not.

So only one of the four end-of-century years in 400 years is a leap year. The rest are common years.

Fun fact: A person born on leap day (February 29th) is called a leapling.

Which calendar do we use?

The modern-day calendar that the vast majority uses is Gregorian Calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and is based on the Julian calendar.

Even though the Julian calendar already had leap years, it was slightly off (today already about 13 days!). 

Because the solar year is 365 days, 5 hours 48 minutes, and 46 seconds long (not 365 days and 6 hours), in the Gregorian calendar, since 1582, this has been corrected, and the leap years are calculated with a few exceptions.

Other calendars are still used to calculate f.ex religious holidays and annual feasts, but the Gregorian calendar is most commonly used to track days, weeks, months, and years.

FAQ

READ NEXT: Months of the Year – The Numbers and Order of the 12 Months

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