Astana
UTC+5Kazakhstan · +05
Sun, 9 Aug 2026
Timezone Guide
Astana, Kazakhstan runs on UTC+5. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+5 — daylight saving time is not observed. There is a 9-hour difference between Astana and New York. Standard working hours don't overlap at all with New York, so meetings need an early or late slot on one side. There is a 4-hour difference between Astana and London. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 5 hours a day with London. A good time to connect: 13:00–18:00 in Astana lines up with 09:00–14:00 in London. There is a 4-hour difference between Astana and Tokyo. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 5 hours a day with Tokyo. A good time to connect: 09:00–14:00 in Astana lines up with 13:00–18:00 in Tokyo. This timezone is also shared with cities such as Karachi. Keeping these offsets in mind makes it easier to schedule calls or travel to and from Astana.
Practical Info
Astana (Kazakhstan) is home to roughly 1.4M people. Today brings about 16.8 hours of daylight: sunrise at 04:12, sunset at 21:00. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+5 — daylight saving time is not observed. It sits in the Northern Hemisphere, about 51° north of the equator. Traffic drives on the right.
Flag
Kazakhstan
Capital
Astana 👑
Continent
Asia
Time Zone
+05 · Asia/Almaty
Coordinates
51.17°N, 71.45°E
Currency
KZT (₸)
Calling Code
+7
Driving Side
Right
Hemisphere
Northern
Language
Kazakh, Russian
Measurement System
Metric
Did You Know?
A City with Six Names, and a Clock That Moved Toward the Sun
Astana has been called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Aqmola, Astana, Nur-Sultan and Astana again. Six names, five changes, two of them in the last seven years — Astana became Nur-Sultan in 2019 and reverted in 2022.
The temperature range is similarly wide. The record low is −51.6°C, set in January 1893; the record high is +41.6°C, in July 1936. That is a span of 93 degrees. The average January temperature is around −14.5°C, snow cover can last more than six months, and total annual precipitation is only about 340 mm.
It is the second coldest capital city in the world, after Ulaanbaatar.
And most of it did not exist thirty years ago. Kazakhstan moved its capital here from Almaty in 1997, to a site on the Ishim River surrounded by open steppe for hundreds of kilometres. The entire left bank of the city was built from nothing after that date. The population has gone from a few hundred thousand to around 1.4 million.
The clock: and in 2024 Astana did something almost nothing else in this series has done.
For 96 years Kazakhstan was split into two time zones — UTC+5 in the west and UTC+6 in the east, including Astana. The country spans 40°45′ of longitude, giving a solar time difference of 2 hours and 43 minutes between its eastern and western edges. By geography it could justify three or four zones.
On 1 March 2024, by government decree, the whole country moved to a single zone: UTC+5. Clocks in Astana, Almaty, Shymkent and twelve regions were turned back an hour.
The stated reason is the interesting part. Kazakh scientists argued that UTC+6 "does not correspond to natural solar time, which negatively affects biological rhythms and human health." The government chose the offset closer to the sun.
Astana sits at 71.4° east. Under UTC+6 it ran roughly 74 minutes ahead of its own solar noon. Under UTC+5 it runs about 14 minutes ahead.
Almost every other decision on this site went the other way. Madrid, Singapore, Istanbul and Reykjavík all rounded their clocks further from the sun. In 2024 Kazakhstan rounded back toward it.
Sources
- timeanddate.com, *Kazakhstan to Move to a Single Time Zone* (96 yıllık iki dilim; 19 Ocak 2024 tarihli Başbakan Alikhan Smailov kararnamesi; 1 Mart 2024 geçişi; DST'nin 2005'te kaldırılması)
- Wikipedia, *Time in Kazakhstan* (40°45′ boylam farkı; 2 saat 43 dakikalık güneş saati farkı)
- newsendip.com / Interfax (Kazak bilim insanlarının "doğal güneş saatine karşılık gelmiyor, biyolojik ritimleri ve insan sağlığını olumsuz etkiliyor" gerekçesi)
- The Astana Times ve Microsoft Tech Community (etkilenen şehir ve bölgelerin listesi)
- Britannica, *Astana* (isim değişikliklerinin tam sırası ve tarihleri; 1997'de başkentin taşınması)
- Climates to Travel (Ocak ortalaması −14,5°C; rekor −51,6°C Ocak 1893 ve +41,6°C Temmuz 1936; 340 mm yağış; 1,4 milyon nüfus)
- CNN ve Al Jazeera (Ulan Batur'dan sonra en soğuk ikinci başkent; 1997 öncesi boş arazi)
- Boylam hesabı: Astana 71,4°D; UTC+5 meridyeni 75°D, UTC+6 meridyeni 90°D
Annual Daylight
Working Hours
4h overlap