Chinese Zodiac Years Chart: Find Your Sign by Birth Year

Your Chinese zodiac sign comes from the year you were born. Find your birth year in the chart below and you have your animal. Korea uses the same twelve animals and calls a person’s sign their ddi (띠), so the chart works for the Korean zodiac too.

The only catch is January and early February. The zodiac year doesn’t start on January 1, so if your birthday falls in those weeks, use the second table to check which side of the line you’re on.

Zodiac years chart, 1924 to 2031

The animals repeat every twelve years, so you can extend the chart in either direction by adding or subtracting 12. The Goat is also called the Sheep or Ram; all three translate the same character, 羊.

Find your element from the last digit of the year

Each year also has a heavenly stem, and the stem gives the year its element. That’s where names like “Fire Horse” or “Metal Rat” come from. The stem follows a ten-year pattern you can read straight off the last digit:

So 1990 is the Metal Horse (庚午), 2003 the Water Goat (癸未), and 2027 the Fire Goat (丁未). Put the stem and the animal together and you get one of sixty combinations, the sixty-year cycle behind the whole calendar.

This year element is not the same thing as the element of you in a saju chart. Saju reads you from the stem of your birth day, your day master, which can be any of the ten no matter what year you were born. The what element am I post explains the difference.

Born in January or February? Check the start date

There are two common rules for when the zodiac year begins:

1. Lunar new year. The everyday rule in China, Korea and most zodiac websites. The new animal starts on Chinese New Year or Korean Seollal, somewhere between January 21 and February 20.
2. Ipchun (立春, start of spring). The rule used in saju and bazi charts. The year pillar changes at an exact moment around February 4, fixed by the sun rather than the moon.

If you were born between the two dates, the rules disagree. Someone born on January 25, 2020 is a Rat by the lunar new year (it began that day) but still a Pig in saju, because Ipchun came on February 4. The table below gives both dates for recent years. Times are Korea time; China and Taiwan are one hour earlier.

Dates come from the same calendar code SajuBunny uses for its charts. In a few years, such as 1997, 2027 and 2028, the new moon falls near midnight, so the Korean and Chinese lunar new years land on different days.

What your sign does and doesn’t tell you

In Korean saju your sign is the branch of the year pillar: one character out of eight. It’s handy for small talk, it decides your samjae years in Korean folk belief, and it’s the basis of zodiac compatibility, where two signs meet through fixed combinations and clashes.

It isn’t the whole picture, though. Your month, day and hour pillars add six more characters, and most saju readings start from the day pillar, not the year. If you want to see all eight, the free saju calculator works them out from your birth date, time and city, and it uses the Ipchun rule automatically.

FAQ

How do I find my Chinese zodiac sign?

Find your birth year in the chart above. If you were born in January or early February, compare your birthday with that year’s lunar new year date; if you were born before it, your sign is the previous year’s animal.

What is my Chinese zodiac element?

The year element comes from the last digit of your birth year: 4 and 5 are wood, 6 and 7 fire, 8 and 9 earth, 0 and 1 metal, 2 and 3 water. Even digits are yang and odd digits are yin.

Is the Korean zodiac the same as the Chinese zodiac?

The twelve animals and their order are the same. Koreans call your sign your ddi, and saju charts change the year at Ipchun around February 4 rather than at Seollal.

What sign is 2027?

2027 is the Year of the Goat, specifically the Fire Goat, 丁未. It starts on February 6, 2027 by the Chinese lunar calendar, February 7 in Korea, and at Ipchun on February 4 in saju.