U.S. federal holiday
How Many Days Until MLK Day 2027?
Today: · Eastern Time (America/New_York)
Calendar days until MLK Day
86 days until MLK Day
MLK Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.) is on Monday, January 18, 2027.
Observed federal day off: Monday, January 18, 2027. The countdown targets the actual holiday date.
Live countdown to midnight on January 18, 2027
85 days, 18 hours, 24 minutes, 49 seconds remaining
Eastern Time (America/New_York). Countdown days are 24 hours; the calendar-day count above uses local dates.
- Calendar days (signed)
- 86
- Full weeks + days
- 12 weeks + 2 days
- Calendar months + days
- 2 months + 25 days
- Years, months, days
- 0 years, 2 months, 25 days
- Weekdays counted
- 61
- Weekend days counted
- 25
- U.S. business days
- 56
- Observed holiday dates skipped
- 5
What is MLK Day?
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, officially the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., honors the civil rights leader on the third Monday in January, close to his January 15 birthday. It is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service.
History of MLK Day
King was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, and was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. A campaign for a holiday began soon after his death; President Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983, and it was first observed in 1986. By 2000 every state recognized the day under some name.
MLK Day today
Federal offices, banks and many schools close. AmeriCorps encourages people to make it "a day on, not a day off," with volunteer projects across the country, and communities hold marches, services and readings of King's speeches.
Date details
- Category
- U.S. federal holiday
- How the date is set
- Set by a yearly rule
- Country / region
- United States
- Actual event date
Event date facts
- Weekday
- Monday
- ISO week / year
- 3 / 2027
- Day of year
- 18
- Quarter
- 1
- Days left in year
- 347
- Leap year
- No
January 2027
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target | ||||||
Event dates by year
| Rule year | Actual date | Observed federal closure | Certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Monday, January 20, 2025 | Mon, Jan 20, 2025 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2026 | Monday, January 19, 2026 | Mon, Jan 19, 2026 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2027 | Monday, January 18, 2027 | Mon, Jan 18, 2027 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2028 | Monday, January 17, 2028 | Mon, Jan 17, 2028 | Set by a yearly rule |
| 2029 | Monday, January 15, 2029 | Mon, Jan 15, 2029 | Set by a yearly rule |
Quick answers
- What day of the week is January 18, 2027?
- January 18, 2027 is a Monday.
- Is MLK Day a federal holiday?
- Yes. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the 11 annual U.S. federal holidays.
- What week of the year is January 18, 2027?
- January 18, 2027 is in ISO week 3 of 2027 and is day 18 of the year.
How the MLK Day date is calculated
- January 1, 2027 is a Friday, so the first Monday is January 4 and the third is January 18. That makes MLK Day Monday, January 18, 2027. Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) sets it on that Monday.
- The countdown counts calendar days from today to January 18, 2027. The start date is excluded and the end date is included. Dates use Eastern Time (America/New_York).
- The live countdown runs to midnight at the start of January 18, 2027 in Eastern Time (America/New_York). A countdown day is 24 hours, so a daylight-saving change can make it differ from the calendar-day count by an hour.
- Calculated at 6:35 AM on October 24, 2026.
- U.S. business days exclude Saturday, Sunday and observed nationwide federal closures; individual employer and state schedules are not included.