Time in Florida

Current time for most counties: 02:56, January 30, 2025 EST [refresh]
Current time for some panhandle counties: 01:56, January 30, 2025 CST [refresh]

Map of Florida time zones. Counties in red follow central time. Counties in yellow follow eastern time. Counties with a checkerboard pattern have areas that follow both time zones.

Entering Gulf County / Entering Eastern Time Zone

Most of Florida is in the Eastern Time Zone (UTC−05:00, DST UTC−04:00).

The following parts of the Florida panhandle in northwest Florida are in the Central Time Zone (UTC−06:00, DST UTC−05:00):

• Bay County, 2010 population 168,852
• Calhoun County, 2010 population 14,625
• Escambia County, 2010 population 297,619
• Holmes County, 2010 population 19,927
• Jackson County, 2010 population 49,746
• Okaloosa County 2010 population 180,822
• Santa Rosa County, 2010 population 151,372
• Walton County, 2010 population 55,043
• Washington County, 2010 population 24,935
• Northern part of Gulf County

The 2010 population of all counties that are entirely in the Central Time zone was 995,882 out of a total state population of 18,801,310 at that time, or 5.3% of the total state population.

Daylight saving time is observed throughout the state.

Proposed shift to Daylight Saving Time year-round (Sunshine Protection Act)

In 2018, the Florida Legislature approved, and the governor signed, the "Sunshine Protection Act" (House Bill 1013),[1] which would permanently move Florida to Daylight Saving Time.[2] A related bill, Senate Bill 858, also proposed unifying the time zones of the Panhandle counties to the rest of the state, moving the ten counties that are within the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone, but this bill was not passed.[3][4] A change to year-round Daylight Saving Time would require approval from the United States Department of Transportation as well as the United States Congress.[5][6]

tz database

The tz database version 2025a contains two time zones for Florida.

CC	Coordinates	TZ	Comments	UTC offset	UTC offset DST	Notes
US	+415100−0873900	America/Chicago	Central (most areas)	−06:00	−05:00
US	+404251−0740023	America/New_York	Eastern (most areas)	−05:00	−04:00

References

1. "Florida House of Representatives: HB 1013" (PDF). Florida House of Representatives. January 24, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
2. Lemongello, Steven. "Florida's year-round daylight saving time law on hold in Congress". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
3. "Florida Senate - 2018: CS for SB 858" (PDF). Florida Senate. January 24, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
4. "Senate Bill 858 (2018) - The Florida Senate". www.flsenate.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
5. Mary Ellen Klas (January 24, 2018). "Should Florida keep Daylight Saving Time all year? It could happen". Miami Herald. The McClatchy Company. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
6. Lemongello, Steven. "Florida's year-round daylight saving time law on hold in Congress". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 2019-03-12.