Common year

For the calendar era, see Common Era. For the fictional date system, see Common Year (Greyhawk).

A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366 days. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar (like the earlier Julian calendar) employs both common years and leap years to keep the calendar aligned with the tropical year, which does not contain an exact number of days.

The common year of 365 days has 52 weeks and one day, hence a common year always begins and ends on the same day of the week (for example, January 1 and December 31 will fall on a Wednesday in 2025) and the year following a common year will start on the subsequent day of the week. In common years, February has exactly four weeks, so March begins on the same day of the week. November also begins on this day. For example, February 2025 begins on a Saturday, so March will begin on a Saturday as well. November will follow the same characteristic. February in a common year is the only month that can be rectangular. This happens in a Common year starting on Thursday in places where Sunday is considered the first day of the week and a Common year starting on Friday in places where Monday is considers the first day of the week.

Each common year has 179 even-numbered days and 186 odd-numbered days.

In the Gregorian calendar, 303 out of every 400 years are common years. By comparison, in the Julian calendar, 300 out of every 400 years are common years, and in the Revised Julian calendar (used by Greece) 682 out of every 900 years are common years.

Calendars

• Common year starting on Monday
• Common year starting on Tuesday
• Common year starting on Wednesday
• Common year starting on Thursday
• Common year starting on Friday
• Common year starting on Saturday
• Common year starting on Sunday