Virgo dates23 August to 22 September, with a cusp that has moved

Virgo begins when the Sun's longitude reaches 150°, and in US time that instant has slid from 23 August to 22 August within living memory. Counting every year from 1951 to 2030 in US Eastern time, Virgo began on 23 August 48 times and on 22 August 32 times. Those totals hide a trend. In the 1950s not a single Virgo season began on 22 August in New York. In the 2020s most of them do.

The line is not smooth, and the wobble is worth understanding because it explains why two people born a year apart can get different answers. Within any four-year leap cycle the ingress moves about six hours later each year and then jumps back by most of a day after 29 February. Whether a particular decade catches more early years or more late ones depends on where its leap years fall against the hour of the ingress. Underneath the wobble the direction is steady: the calendar has been gaining on the Sun since 1900, and it will keep gaining until the leap day of 2100 is dropped.

Three recent years show the spread. In 2026 the Sun entered Virgo at 10:19 pm on 22 August in New York, which was already 23 August at 02:19 UTC. In 2027 it is 4:14 am on 23 August Eastern, a 23 August year. In 2028, a leap year, it falls back to 10:01 am on 22 August. A table that prints "Virgo, 23 August" is right for some of those births and wrong for others, and the only fix is the birth time.

Outside the US the picture changes. In the UK Virgo began on 23 August in 64 of the 80 years, on 22 August in 15 and once, in 1951, on 24 August; from 2021 to 2030 the UK split is exactly even, 5 and 5. Sydney, ten hours ahead of UTC, has had its own shift one day later: Virgo began on 24 August there in 6 years of the 1950s and on 23 August in all 10 years from 2021 to 2030.

The September end is a coin toss

Libra begins at 180°, the September equinox, and in US Eastern time it began on 22 September in exactly 40 of the 80 years and on 23 September in the other 40. Recent years lean early (8 of 10 on the 22nd). Pacific time leans further, with 51 of 80 years on 22 September, while London still favours the 23rd, 58 times in 80.

The table says 22 August was wholly Leo in Eastern time in 48 years, and 23 September was wholly Libra in 40. Every date from 24 August to 21 September was Virgo in all 80 years in US time. If your birthday is on one of the edge days, the zodiac sign calculator takes the date, time and place and gives the sign; the August zodiac signs and September zodiac signs pages walk through each day of both months.

Find the year, then check whether your birth time falls after the Virgo time and before the Libra time for your zone. The Libra columns are the September equinox in Eastern and Pacific time.

Virgo is the second most common Sun sign in American birth records. The rarest zodiac signs study assigned 62,187,026 US births from 2000 to 2014 to signs using the exact ingress times, and 5,557,333, or 8.94%, were Virgos. Only Leo, at 8.96%, was higher.

That ranking is more remarkable than it looks, because Virgo is not a long sign. The Sun spends 30.90 days in Virgo, less than in Cancer, Gemini, Leo or Taurus. Four signs have more days and only one has more births. The study's ratio measures the gap: in 2014 Virgo's share of births was 8.84% against an expected 8.46% from its days alone, a ratio of 1.045. Only Leo's ratio is higher. In plain terms, the US registry records more births per day in late August and September than in almost any other part of the year.

The data shows when births happen, not why. Counting back the usual 38 weeks from 23 August and 22 September puts the matching conceptions between the end of November and the end of December, which is an observation people often connect with the holiday season. The registry cannot test that explanation, and this page does not need it: what matters for the ranking is the birth calendar itself, which the study counts directly.

The ranking is not universal. In England and Wales (2025) Virgo is only sixth of twelve, at 8.47%, behind Gemini, Cancer and Leo among others, and in Australia it is fourth. Canada puts it third. So "Virgo is the second most common sign" is an American fact, and a British Virgo is a fairly ordinary sign by count.

Virgo opens 2027 with Mars in the sign and about to stop. Mars turns retrograde on 10 January at 10°26′ Virgo, the Sun degree of people born around 2 September, retreats into Leo in late February, and comes back into Virgo on 14 May. In between, a penumbral lunar eclipse falls on 20 February at 2°06′ Virgo, close to the Sun of birthdays around 25 August. A penumbral eclipse is faint enough that most people looking up would not notice it; astrologers still count the degree.

The larger change is Jupiter, which enters Virgo on 26 July at 04:49 UTC (12:49 am EDT) and stays until 24 August 2028. Virgo is the sign of Jupiter's detriment, opposite its own Pisces, so by the traditional rule this is Jupiter working in an unfamiliar room: growth that comes through detail, revision and checking rather than through big gestures. Virgos born from 11 August 2015 to 9 September 2016 have their first Jupiter return during this stay, which the Jupiter return calculator dates to the day.

Late summer then fills the sign. Mercury arrives on 17 August, Venus on 20 August, and the Sun on 23 August 2027 at 08:14 UTC, which is 4:14 am Eastern. The Virgo New Moon follows on 31 August at 8°06′. The Virgo 2027 horoscope sets these out by date and house, and the Virgo horoscope covers the current week.

The Chaldean faces of Virgo are the Sun, Venus and Mercury. The modern scheme by element uses Virgo, Capricorn and Taurus, so Mercury, Saturn and Venus. The two systems give Virgo's last decan, roughly 12 to 22 September, to Mercury and to Venus respectively, which is a good reason to say which system a reading uses. In the faces, a Virgo born in those days has the Sun in Mercury's house, exaltation and face at once.

Pluto was in Virgo from 1957 until 5 October 1971, and Uranus from 10 August 1962 to 28 September 1968, so every Virgo born from 1962 to 1968 has the Sun, Uranus and Pluto in the same sign, and the two outer planets met in conjunction during those years. Saturn's passes give the Virgos of 1978 and 1979 and of 2007 to 2009 their own cohort; the next Saturn in Virgo starts on 16 October 2036. The stellium guide covers reading three planets in one sign.

Pisces, opposite, reverses Virgo's dignities exactly. Mercury rules Virgo and is depressed in Pisces; Venus falls in Virgo and is exalted in Pisces; Jupiter rules Pisces and is in detriment in Virgo. So Virgo and Pisces pairs the editor with the person who sees the whole picture and skips the footnotes, which can be a working partnership or a running argument about the dishwasher. Pisces dates and the March cusp covers that sign.

Taurus and Capricorn share the earth triangle and sit a trine away, which makes Taurus and Virgo and Virgo and Capricorn the classically easy pairings. Sun signs alone are a rough guide; synastry compares whole charts. The neighbouring signs are Leo dates and the 22 August cusp and Libra dates from 22 or 23 September, and the zodiac signs by date page has all twelve.