Quick answer: As of 2026, no major economy has fully abolished daylight saving time in the current year, but the momentum against it keeps building. Mexico largely scrapped DST in 2022 and Brazil suspended it in 2019. The US Sunshine Protection Act (to make DST permanent) has passed the Senate repeatedly but stalled in the House. The EU voted to end mandatory clock changes back in 2018 but has never implemented it. So the clocks still change in most observing countries - but the list of holdouts is slowly growing, and the debate is very much alive.

Whatever the rules do, your times stay right: Open BestSyncTime - it always applies each country's current DST rules automatically, so you never have to track who's abolished what.

The countries that have already stopped

A handful of significant economies have genuinely moved away from DST in recent years:

Mexico abolished daylight saving time for most of the country in 2022. A few areas near the US border kept it to stay aligned with American trading partners, but the vast majority of Mexico no longer changes its clocks.

Brazil suspended DST in 2019 after decades of observing it. The government concluded the energy savings had largely evaporated as consumption patterns shifted, and the change wasn't worth the disruption.

Russia stopped changing its clocks in 2011, settling permanently onto standard time after a brief experiment with permanent summer time.

Turkey moved to permanent summer time (year-round DST, effectively) in 2016, staying on UTC+3 all year without switching.

These aren't small players - collectively they represent a meaningful share of the world's population that has already opted out of the twice-yearly ritual.

The US: passed the Senate, stuck in the House

The United States has come closest of the big economies to change, and then not moved. The Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide (ending the "fall back" to standard time), has passed the US Senate more than once - but it has repeatedly stalled in the House of Representatives.

There's a wrinkle worth noting: the bill would make *DST* permanent, but many sleep scientists argue the healthier choice would be permanent *standard* time instead, citing benefits for circadian rhythms and morning light. That disagreement - permanent DST vs. permanent standard time - is part of why the reform keeps stalling. Everyone agrees the clock changes are annoying; they don't agree on which time to lock in.

The EU: voted to end it, never did

The European Union may have the most frustrating story. In 2018, an EU-wide public consultation found that around 84% of the millions who responded wanted to end the mandatory clock changes. The European Parliament voted to abolish them.

And then... nothing happened. Implementation has been delayed repeatedly, tangled in the practical problem of coordination: each member state would choose whether to lock in summer or winter time, and the fear is a patchwork where neighboring countries end up on different permanent offsets, fragmenting the single market's time zones. Unable to agree on the details, the EU has kept changing its clocks every year - including in 2026.

Why abolishing DST is harder than it looks

If so many people dislike DST, why does it persist? Several reasons:

  • - Coordination costs. Time zones are only useful if neighbors agree. One country unilaterally abolishing DST can create new, awkward offsets with its trading partners - which is exactly the EU's paralysis.
  • - The "which time?" split. Reformers can't agree whether to keep permanent summer time (lighter evenings) or permanent standard time (lighter mornings, better for health). This disagreement stalls otherwise-popular bills.
  • - Inertia and low priority. Clock changes are annoying but not catastrophic, so the issue rarely rises to the top of a legislature's agenda, and reform keeps getting deferred.

The bottom line

No major economy fully abolished DST in 2026, but the trend is clearly toward fewer clock changes: Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and Turkey have all exited in recent years, while the US and EU have popular reforms stuck in political limbo - largely because reformers can't agree whether to lock in summer or winter time, and because coordinating with neighbors is genuinely hard. The upshot for scheduling: the DST map shifts year to year, so always check current rules rather than trusting old assumptions.

Stay right through every rule change: Open BestSyncTime, enter your cities, and get times that reflect each country's current daylight-saving status.