Chinese Zodiac Years Chart: 1900 to 2031, Animal by Animal

The short answer

Take the year you were born and read across. Someone born in 1995 lands on the Pig, in a Wood year. A birth in 2000 falls in a Metal Dragon year, and 2027 reads Fire Goat.

The animal is the part most people want, and the other two columns answer the follow-up. The stem-and-branch pair names the year in the traditional count, and the element form joins the two into one phrase. A year carries a name like Metal Dragon because its stem is Metal and its branch is Dragon.

Two rules cover the whole table. Animals run in a fixed order and return every twelve years. The pair of characters above the animal returns after sixty years, so the same combination repeats once in a lifetime at most.

The twelve animals and their years

Read the table in this direction when you start from the animal rather than the year. Each row lists the years inside the 1900 to 2031 window that carry that animal.

The order in the first column is the order of the twelve earthly branches, and it does not change. Rat opens the cycle and Pig closes it, then Rat returns. Each animal page on this site covers one branch in depth: its years, its element forms, and where it sits in the pairing table. The zodiac index collects them.

The full chart, 1900 to 2031

The same data sorted the other way. Find the year in the first column, then read the animal, the pair that names the year in Chinese, and the element form.

Years 1900 to 1949. The first block, fifty rows.

Years 1950 to 1999. A second block, fifty rows, same columns.

Years 2000 to 2031. The closing block, thirty-two rows.

The window closes at 2031 because the list has to end somewhere, and 2031 completes a Pig year, which is where the twelve-animal round finishes. Extend the pattern past it and the same order continues: 2032 is a Rat year, and the pair starts again from a different stem.

How the cycle repeats

Two counts run at the same time. The branches number twelve and carry the animals. The stems number ten and carry the elements. Both advance one step a year, so the two fall out of step and line up again after sixty years, which is the length of the full cycle.

That arithmetic explains a question the table invites. Why does a Rat year appear in Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth? Because a stem and a branch meet in five combinations before the pattern repeats, and sixty years hold those five forms once each. Find Metal Rat at 1900, 1960 and 2020, and the same animal in four other forms between them.

The full mechanics of how a stem pairs with an animal, and why one animal carries five names, sits in the Dragon page, which works the same arithmetic through a single sign.

Where the two new years sit

A zodiac year has two starting lines, and their order is not fixed.

Lunar New Year is the festival date. It opens the lunisolar year and moves each year between 21 January and 20 February. That boundary is the one the table above uses, and it is the one behind the common answer to which animal a year carries.

Li Chun is the solar term that opens spring, and it falls on 3, 4 or 5 February. A birth chart reads the year pillar from Li Chun rather than from the festival, so the chart and the festival can disagree about a birthday that lands between the two dates.

Li Chun holds near the start of February, while the festival swings across four weeks, so the two can land in either order, with up to about two weeks between them. In 2024 Li Chun came first, on 4 February, six days before the festival. In 2025 the order flipped: the festival opened on 29 January, five days before Li Chun. In 2027 the two draw close, two days apart. The 2027 festival date has the calendar for that year.

Finding your own sign

Three steps cover the common case. Take the year you were born and find it in the chart above, then read the animal and the element form from that row.

A birthday in January or the first days of February is the case that needs a second look, because both boundaries land in that stretch. Find out whether the date falls before or after the festival that year, and the row shifts back one animal if it falls before.

A birth chart asks for more than the year. It reads four pillars from the birth date and hour, and the year branch is one of eight positions in the result. The free chart works the other seven out, and how the two systems differ sets out what the year branch adds and what it leaves out.

Where this chart can be wrong

The years, the animals and the element forms come from two cycles that advance on fixed counts, and those entries are stable across sources. The boundary dates are the part with room to move.

This site takes the festival dates from a standard lunisolar conversion table that covers 1900 to 2099, and the Li Chun times from a short astronomical series accurate to minutes rather than seconds. In a boundary year a difference of minutes can flip the animal for a birth at the wrong hour on 4 February. The table above answers the festival question, so a birthday in that narrow window is the one entry to check against a second source.

The order of the animals and the arithmetic behind the stem pairing follow the classical cycle, and the method page sets out how this site handles sources.

FAQ

What is the Chinese zodiac for 1995? 1995 is the year of the Pig, in its Wood form. The year runs from 31 January 1995 to 18 February 1996, and anyone born in that window takes the Pig.

How do I find my Chinese zodiac sign? Take your birth year, then find it in the chart above and read across to the animal. A birthday in January or the first days of February needs the festival date for that year, because the zodiac year starts at Lunar New Year rather than on 1 January.

Do Chinese zodiac years follow the calendar year? No. A zodiac year opens at Lunar New Year, which moves between 21 January and 20 February, so the animal changes partway through the calendar year rather than on 1 January.

What is the Chinese zodiac for 2027? 2027 is the year of the Goat, in its Fire form, written 丁未 (ding-wei). The year opens on 6 February 2027 and closes on 25 January 2028.

Why do some years share an animal but carry a different element? The animal comes from the branch, which advances by twelve, and the element comes from the stem, which advances by ten. The two counts meet in five combinations across sixty years, so one animal carries five element forms.