Do All States Participate in Daylight Savings Time?

Do all states participate in daylight savings time? While you may think that every state in the US would participate in this energy saving measure (for consistencies sake, if nothing else), the answer to this question is no, not all states participate in daylight savings time.

Even though there are federal laws in the United States that regulate the beginning and ending of the period of Daylight Savings Time, or “DST” every year, there is no federal law that mandates any state or requires any particular state to observe the change in time. So, not all states participate.

In fact, there are two U.S. states that do not observe Daylight Savings Time at all.

• Arizona and Hawaii maintain standard time throughout the entirety of every year, never turning clocks ahead (Spring) or behind (Fall).
• In addition to Arizona and Hawaii others who do not participate in daylight savings time include Puerto Rico, which is now considered an American territory, as well as American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.
• The state of Indiana was another of the few states that didn’t recognize Daylight Savings time until April of 2005, when a state law was passed that put DST into effect within the state. 

From 1986 until 2006, Daylight Savings Time began on the first Sunday in the month of April and ended on the last Sunday in the month of October, but in 2007 the beginning of the period was changed to the second Sunday in the month of March to the first Sunday in the month of November. This added roughly a month to the entirety of the DST period.