NEWS
March 24th 2021

Study on the time change: majority of Germans prefer all-year summer time

Millions of wristwatches, railway station clocks and church clocks will be changed to daylight saving time on Sunday 28 March 2021. Actually, this should be the last time this happens in Europe, as the EU Parliament decided two years ago. But there is no end in sight. A representative study by the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences and the market research institute moweb research GmbH shows that around three quarters of Germans would like to abolish the time changeover.

The clocks are changed on Sunday: According to a representative study, the majority of Germans want to abolish the time change.

According to a representative study by the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences (TH OWL) and the market research institute moweb research GmbH, around three quarters of Germans want the time change to be abolished. The majority would like to see summer time all year round. The rejection of the time change is particularly clear among older people. Working people and people who do not have children living in the household, on the other hand, are more inclined to keep the time change. Every second German says he or she will miss out on sleep because of the upcoming time change. Moreover, almost half of the Germans need up to three days to get used to the new time. Almost one in three, on the other hand, feel no difference due to the time change, with women taking longer to get used to the clock change.

The study also investigated how attitudes towards the preferred time system change when people are informed about its consequences. For example, it was made clear to some of the consumers that with permanent daylight saving time it would stay light longer in winter, but also darker in the morning. With all-year winter time, it would get light very early in the morning and dark earlier in the evening. Participants who were made aware of this consequence had an even stronger preference for year-round summer time. Thus, with illustration, 59 percent of respondents were in favour of summer time and about 19 percent were in favour of winter time. Without illustration, 46 percent want daylight saving time and 27 percent want year-round winter time.

The study also examined differences between morning and evening types. Morning types tend to go to bed early, evening types usually after 10 pm. Both groups want the abolition of the time change, but a year-round summer time is welcomed more by evening types (62% to 55%). Winter time all year round, on the other hand, is preferred by morning types (23% to 15%). Compared to a study conducted by TH OWL with TU Braunschweig in 2018, consumer attitudes have hardly changed - even against the background of a possible higher working time flexibility due to the Corona pandemic. In 2018, around 75 per cent of Germans again rejected the time changeover. In addition, a large proportion were again in favour of year-round summer time over winter time in 2018. In comparison, only the proportion without a clear opinion fell (from 19.5% to 12.5%).

Click here for the complete study results (in German): Download PDF

Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences

The Technical University of East Westphalia-Lippe is a university of applied sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia with three campuses in Lemgo, Detmold and Höxter and around 6,600 students. TH OWL is one of the ten most research-intensive universities of applied sciences in Germany. Further information at www.th-owl.de.

moweb research

For more than 20 years moweb has been conducting market research from A to Z worldwide. The Düsseldorf office employs 40 people and advises companies of all sizes and from all industries. Click here to contact us.