DST
What countries don’t observe daylight saving time and their reasons for not doing so
Daylight saving time in the US starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, with the time changes taking place at 2:00 a.m.
The bulk of US citizens will employ a century old ritual this weekend when they move their clocks back an hour as part of the Fall daylight saving time (with the clocks moving forward each March).
This bi-annual event takes place in the United States on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November in a bid to capitalize on the extended hours of sunlight with the measure a means of saving energy and also a manner of reducing crime and road accidents. Over the years however, a growing number of detractors claim that the changes take a toll on people’s health that outweighs the advantages.
US states and territories that don’t participate in DST
Not all US citizens however will be getting an extra hour of sleep when daylight saving time (DST) commences this Sunday, as residents of Hawaii, the bulk of Arizona, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa don’t participate in the initiative.
Arizona experimented with the change beginning in 1918, but decided to opt out of DST permanently in 1968 as the state argued that its hot temperatures actually caused energy consumption to rise during DST, as people sought to keep living and working spaces cool. Although Arizona observes Standard Time, the Navajo Nation, a Native American territory in the northeast of the state that also crosses over into New Mexico and Utah, does make the twice-a-year time shift.
Which nations don’t change their clocks
Outside the US, there are several countries that don’t practice daylight saving time and in Europe they include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Iceland, Russia and Turkey.
DST is mainly used in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia/ New Zealand with Egypt the only African nation and Chile the only South American country using daylight saving time. DST is not employed by any nation in Asia.
As cited previously, many experts cite the time changes are detrimental to people’s health with experts in many parts of the world divided over the potential environmental benefits of the keenly contested time change issue.