List of Years With 53 Fridays (2030–1990)

A year has 53 Fridays when it contains 53 occurrences of Friday instead of the usual 52.
This happens when:

• The year starts on a Friday (common year), or
• The year starts on a Thursday and it is a leap year

This guide lists all years with 53 Fridays from 2030 back to 1990, offering a clear breakdown of each year and a simple explanation of how an extra Friday occurs in the calendar.

What Years Have 53 Fridays? (1990–2030)

These seven are the only years between 1990 and 2030 with an extra Friday.

Upcoming years with 53 Fridays after 2030: 2032, 2038, 2044, 2049.

Why Does a Year Get a 53rd Friday?

A week has 7 days, so:

• A common year is 365 days: 52 full weeks plus 1 extra day. That extra day is the weekday of January 1, so whichever weekday the year starts on occurs 53 times.
• A leap year is 366 days: 52 full weeks plus 2 extra days. Those are the weekdays of January 1 and January 2, so both occur 53 times.

For Friday to be one of the extra days:

• Common year: January 1 must be a Friday.
• Leap year: January 1 must be a Thursday (extra days Thu + Fri) or a Friday (extra days Fri + Sat).

How to Check if Any Year Has 53 Fridays

1. Find the weekday of January 1 for that year.
2. Check whether the year is a leap year (divisible by 4, except century years not divisible by 400).
3. Apply the rule:
   • Common year → 53 Fridays only if Jan 1 is a Friday
   • Leap year → 53 Fridays if Jan 1 is a Thursday or Friday

Quick shortcut: if December 31 is a Friday in a common year, or Dec 31 is Friday or Saturday in a leap year, the year has 53 Fridays.

Examples:

• 2026 starts on a Thursday but is a common year, so it has 52 Fridays (and 53 Thursdays).
• 2024 is a leap year starting on a Monday, so it has 52 Fridays.

Probability of Getting 53 Fridays in a Leap Year

A leap year has 52 weeks plus 2 extra days. Those two consecutive days can be any of 7 equally likely pairs:

Sun–Mon, Mon–Tue, Tue–Wed, Wed–Thu, Thu–Fri, Fri–Sat, Sat–Sun

Two of the seven pairs contain a Friday, so:

P(53 Fridays in a leap year) = 2/7 ≈ 28.6%

For a common year there is one extra day, so:

P(53 Fridays in a common year) = 1/7 ≈ 14.3%

Note for students: 2/7 is the standard textbook answer. In the real Gregorian calendar, 28 of every 97 leap years start on a Thursday or Friday, which is about 28.9%.

How Often Are There 53 Fridays in a Year?

Across the 400-year Gregorian cycle, about 71 years have 53 Fridays, roughly 17.75% of years. That works out to one year in every 5 to 6 years. Our 1990–2030 list matches this, with gaps of 5 or 6 years between 53-Friday years (1993, 1999, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2021, 2027).

FAQs

Also see: How Many Fridays in a Year?

List of Years with 53 Mondays? (2030–1990)