5 things to know about leap day

Leap day is coming around again on Saturday, and, according to Google Search data, search interest in the terms “leap day” and “leap year” has been high (relative to other search terms) in the past few weeks.

Questions South Africans have been asking around leap years over the past two weeks’ include:

1. How many days in a leap year?
2. What is a leap year?
3. Is 2020 a leap year?
4. How many leap years in a decade?
5. Does every country have a leap year?

We asked Google Search for the answers.

How many days in a leap year?

There are 366 days in a leap year.

What is a leap year?

The Earth takes six hours longer than 365 calendar days to do a full revolution around the sun, and this is accommodated in an extra day every four years.

It is called a leap year because dates after leap day jump ahead – so where 21 June was on a Friday last year, instead of being on a Saturday this year it “leaps” a day and will fall on a Sunday instead.

Is 2020 a leap year?

2020 is a leap year. Leap years are years that are divisible by four – 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024 and so on.

How many leap years in a decade?

There isn’t an exact amount because they only occur every four years and there are 10 years in a decade. If you divide 10 by 4, you get 2.5 – so some decades have two and others have three.

Does every country have a leap year?

No – only countries that follow the Gregorian calendar (mainly Western countries) have one. Iran, for example, doesn’t.

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