Dates and time

Overview

We often refer to different time periods in our statistical content. Using a consistent and clear approach ensures that users can easily understand our content.

Dates

Use the format “[Date] [Month] [Year]” (depending on what information you have) written out with no commas. If the day of the week is relevant, then put it before the date. Do not include “st”, “nd”, “rd” and “th” after the date.

Months

Write out months in full in all main content.

Date spans and reference periods

Use the format “[date] to [date]” to state the reference period for your data.

If you are using months in the same year, only include the year after the final month. If the date span is covering dates within the same month, include the dates and only write out the month once.

If the period spans years, add the relevant year after each month.

For a period between two dates, use the format “between [date] and [date]”.

Change in data over time

If you need to show a change in the data between two date spans, include the month and year in brackets after each figure. Use the format “from [amount] (month year) to [amount] (month year)”.

Quarters

Define the quarter, the months covered, and the year. Explain which months are included in the quarter in the first instance of each section, and only include the quarter and year in every subsequent instance. Abbreviate the months to three or four characters.

For titles, use months instead of quarters. If there is analytics evidence to show that users search for “Quarter 1”, use this term but always explain which months are included in the quarter in brackets.

Abbreviated dates

Where space is limited (for example, in a chart, table or dataset), you can abbreviate dates, date spans, months, and quarters.

See our guidance on using abbreviated dates in datasets and using abbreviated dates in charts for more information.

Seasons

Seasons are always lower case.

Bank holidays

When referring to a specific day or holiday, use upper case. Do not use upper case for "bank holiday".

Financial, tax and academic years

These are known as non-calendar years.

For financial years, write “financial year ending” and the abbreviation “FYE” in brackets, followed by the year for the first time you use it in each section. After that, just use the abbreviation and the year. The full phrase should be written out again for the first mention in each section.

If a date span covers this period but you do not want to refer to the financial year, either write “year ending March 2018” or “April 2017 to March 2018” depending on what you think will meet your users’ needs.

If your data source uses another recognised date span such as the academic or tax year, write this in each instance without using hyphens, dashes or slashes.

Include a definition of the months included in a non-calendar date span near its first reference in the text so that all users can understand the dates you are referring to. This will only need to be defined in the first instance of your bulletin or article

Decades

Decades should only have an apostrophe when they are a possessive, not a contraction.

Read more about how to use apostrophes

Centuries

Use ordinal numbers when referring to a particular century.

Using multiple time periods and countries

When reporting on different geographic areas that use data from different date spans, state the month and year of the data collection after each area. Use the appropriate format for the date span, and place the information in brackets.

Time

Do not use the 24-hour clock. Do not insert spaces between the number and the letters, and do not use any punctuation except as shown.

Use the same number format for time spans.