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- Central
CT · UTC−6 standard · UTC−5 daylight · 10 states fully, 10 partly · Chicago, Houston, Dallas
Central Time Zone map
The Central Time Zone runs from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico between the Eastern and Mountain zones. It covers the Mississippi valley and the eastern plains and is split with a neighbour in ten states, more than any other zone.
Offset and daylight saving
Central Standard Time (CST) is UTC−6; Central Daylight Time (CDT), in force from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, is UTC−5. All Central-zone areas observe daylight time. Central is one hour behind Eastern all year, so a 9 am meeting in New York is 8 am in Chicago, and the stock market opens at 8:30 am Central.
States fully in the Central zone
Ten states lie entirely within the zone, with a combined 2020 population of 53,372,194. The bulk of Texas (29,145,505 people, all but two counties) is also Central, which makes it the second most populous zone after Eastern.
| State | Code | Capital | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | AL | Montgomery | 5,024,279 |
| Arkansas | AR | Little Rock | 3,011,524 |
| Illinois | IL | Springfield | 12,812,508 |
| Iowa | IA | Des Moines | 3,190,369 |
| Louisiana | LA | Baton Rouge | 4,657,757 |
| Minnesota | MN | Saint Paul | 5,706,494 |
| Mississippi | MS | Jackson | 2,961,279 |
| Missouri | MO | Jefferson City | 6,154,913 |
| Oklahoma | OK | Oklahoma City | 3,959,353 |
| Wisconsin | WI | Madison | 5,893,718 |
States split with a neighbouring zone
Five states are split between Central and Eastern on the zone's east side, and five between Central and Mountain on its west side. In the eastern group the Central part is the smaller piece in every case except Tennessee; in the western group the Central part is the larger piece in every case.
| State | Part in this zone | Rest of the state |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | Western Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River: Pensacola, Panama City | Peninsula and Tallahassee are Eastern |
| Indiana | 12 counties: the north-west corner near Chicago (Gary, Hammond) and the south-west corner (Evansville) | Other 80 counties, including Indianapolis, are Eastern |
| Kansas | 101 of 105 counties, including Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City | Four western counties (Sherman, Wallace, Greeley, Hamilton) are Mountain |
| Kentucky | Western half: Bowling Green, Paducah, Owensboro | Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort are Eastern |
| Michigan | Four Upper Peninsula counties on the Wisconsin border | Rest of the state is Eastern |
| Nebraska | Eastern two-thirds, including Omaha and Lincoln | Western Panhandle (Scottsbluff) and some central counties are Mountain |
| North Dakota | Eastern and central counties, including Fargo and Bismarck | South-west corner (Dickinson, Bowman) is Mountain |
| South Dakota | Eastern half: Sioux Falls, Pierre | Western half (Rapid City, Black Hills) is Mountain |
| Tennessee | Middle and West Tennessee: Nashville, Memphis, Clarksville | East Tennessee (Knoxville, Chattanooga) is Eastern |
| Texas | All but two counties, including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin | El Paso and Hudspeth counties are Mountain |
Major cities on Central time
| City | Population (2020) |
|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 2,746,388 |
| Houston, TX | 2,304,580 |
| San Antonio, TX | 1,434,625 |
| Dallas, TX | 1,304,379 |
| Austin, TX | 961,855 |
| Fort Worth, TX | 918,915 |
| Nashville, TN | 689,447 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 681,054 |
| Memphis, TN | 633,104 |
| Milwaukee, WI | 577,222 |
Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Kansas City, Omaha, New Orleans, Birmingham, Des Moines and Little Rock are also Central.
Where the boundaries run
Eastern boundary. Lake Michigan, then the Illinois–Indiana line (with the Gary and Evansville exceptions), a winding line through central Kentucky, the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, the Georgia–Alabama state line, and the Apalachicola River in Florida.
Western boundary. From Canada the line runs through south-western North Dakota, cuts South Dakota roughly along the Missouri River, crosses Nebraska west of North Platte, clips the four westernmost counties of Kansas, then follows the Kansas–Colorado, Oklahoma–New Mexico and Texas–New Mexico state lines down to El Paso, which keeps Mountain time.
Converting from Central
- Noon Central is 1 pm Eastern, 11 am Mountain, 10 am Pacific, 9 am Alaska and 8 am Hawaii (7 am during daylight time).
- Noon CST is 18:00 UTC; noon CDT is 17:00 UTC.
- Mexico City is on the same offset as Central Standard Time (UTC−6) all year, so it matches Chicago in winter and is one hour behind in summer.
Other zones
Eastern · Mountain · Pacific · Alaska · Hawaii-Aleutian · all zones
Region maps for the same area: West North Central, West South Central, Great Plains, Gulf Coast. See also the Mississippi River map, which lies entirely in this zone.