When Is The Next Leap Year, Why Do We Have Them And Is 2022 A ...

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When is the next leap year, why do we have them and is 2022 a leap year?

Leap years occur every four years and keep our calendar in line with the Earth's orbit around the Sun

NewsTom Blackburn12:04, 23 Dec 2021Updated 12:04, 23 Dec 2021
A person checking off dates on a calendarView Image

As another year draws to a close, many people are wondering when the next leap year will be(Image: Getty Images)

As another year comes to a close, a lot of people are wondering when the next leap year will be - and how frequent they are.

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Many of us have lived through numerous leap years without really giving much thought to what they are and why we have them.

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So what is a leap year, when is the next one - and will 2022 be a leap year?

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What is a leap year and why do we have them?

A leap year is a year which has an additional day compared to regular years - February 29th, to be exact.

Where an ordinary year has 365 days, a leap year has 366. This extra day falls at the end of February, which typically has 28 days but which has 29 in a leap year.

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The reason we have leap years is that the Earth’s orbit around the Sun actually takes 365.2422 days - so every few years, we need to add an extra day to the year to keep our calendar in line with our planet’s movement around the Sun.

Without this, we’d eventually end up experiencing winter during what we’ve come to recognise as the summer months of the year.

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How often do leap years occur?

Leap years occur every four years. The most recent leap year was 2020.

Is 2022 a leap year? When is the next leap year?

No, 2022 is not a leap year. As the most recent leap year was 2020 and leap years occur every four years, this means that the next leap year will be in 2024.

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