Year of the Tiger: Tiger Zodiac Years, Dates, Traits and Compatibility

The Year of the Tiger is one of the most recognised years in the Chinese zodiac. The Tiger (虎) is sign number 3 of the twelve animals, and people born in a Tiger year are traditionally described as brave, spirited and protective. In Chinese art the tiger is treated as the king of the mountains, and the character 王 (king) is often read in the stripes on its forehead. This guide lists every Tiger year from 1926 to 2035 with exact start and end dates, then explains how the sign is counted, what the tradition says about Tiger personality, and how Tiger compatibility and Tai Sui work in 2026 and 2027.

Year of the Tiger: exact dates

The Chinese zodiac year starts at Chinese New Year, not on January 1. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the zodiac animal changes at Chinese New Year, and that the festival begins with the new moon falling between January 21 and February 20. A Year of the Tiger can therefore begin in late January or in mid February.

Zodiac year	Starts	Ends
1926	Feb 13, 1926	Feb 1, 1927
1938	Jan 31, 1938	Feb 18, 1939
1950	Feb 17, 1950	Feb 5, 1951
1962	Feb 5, 1962	Jan 24, 1963
1974	Jan 23, 1974	Feb 10, 1975
1986	Feb 9, 1986	Jan 28, 1987
1998	Jan 28, 1998	Feb 15, 1999
2010	Feb 14, 2010	Feb 2, 2011
2022	Feb 1, 2022	Jan 21, 2023
2034	Feb 19, 2034	Feb 7, 2035

These dates come from the Hong Kong Observatory Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table. The text version of the same table is also available for checking individual years.

Why the start date moves

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar. Britannica's overview of the Chinese calendar explains that it uses months of 29 or 30 days, and that intercalary months are sometimes added to keep the lunar and solar years in step. Because of this, the first day of the year lands on a different Gregorian date each time, which is why a Year of the Tiger can start in late January one time and in February another time.

How the Tiger is counted in the cycle

The Chinese reckoning of years combines ten Heavenly Stems with twelve Earthly Branches. The twelve branches are the twelve zodiac animals, and the Tiger is the branch Yin (寅). Smith College Museum of Art describes how the stems and branches together name the day, month and year. Pairing ten stems with twelve branches gives a cycle of 60 combinations, which Britannica describes as the ganzhi system whose year count was adopted by the Han emperors around the 2nd century CE.

This is why the years 1926 and 1986 are both Tiger years, 60 years apart. The Victoria and Albert Museum notes that before 1912 years were counted in this stem-plus-branch 60-year cycle. Once you know one Tiger year, you can count forward in steps of 12 for the animal, and steps of 60 for the full stem-and-branch name.

In the traditional day system, the Tiger is linked with the hours of 3 to 5 am. This is part of the older symbolic framework, not a separate calendar.

Worked examples: which Year of the Tiger covers your birthday

The easiest way to check a birthday is to compare it with the start and end dates in the table. Here are a few concrete examples using only the dates above.

Birthday	Result
8 Feb 1986	Before the Tiger year starts on 9 Feb 1986, so this falls in the previous zodiac year
9 Feb 1986	First day of the 1986 Year of the Tiger
27 Jan 1998	Before the 1998 start on 28 Jan, so not a Tiger year birth
28 Jan 1998	First day of the 1998 Year of the Tiger
21 Jan 2023	Last day of the 2022 Year of the Tiger
3 Feb 2011	Falls after the 2010 Tiger year ends on 2 Feb 2011, so it is not Tiger

In each case the year sign changes at Chinese New Year, not at the Gregorian turn of the year. A birthday in early January or February deserves a quick check before you decide on a sign.

Tiger personality in Chinese tradition

Traditional descriptions of the Tiger focus on bravery, spirit and protectiveness. Please read these as cultural associations shared by everyone born in the same year sign, not as a scientific reading of anyone's character. A full Four Pillars (Bazi) chart uses much more than the year animal.

The Victoria and Albert Museum points out that the idea of a personality for each sign is a fairly recent development, and that it does not appear in older Chinese texts. Earlier zodiac imagery is also very different. The V&A notes that Tang dynasty zodiac figures had human bodies with animal heads, and Smith College describes a Tang bronze mirror that shows the twelve zodiac animals together. The Tiger's reputation for courage therefore reflects a tradition that has grown over time.

Tiger compatibility

Compatibility in the tradition describes patterns between signs, not scores or guarantees. The main groupings for the Tiger are:

Six Harmonies (secret friend): Pig
Three Harmonies (allies): Horse and Dog
Clash (opposite sign): Monkey

A person born in a Year of the Tiger may be read alongside any of these signs, but the tradition treats each pairing as one small part of a larger chart. For every pairing, including harm, break and punishment tags, see the compatibility tool.

Tiger and Tai Sui in 2026 and 2027

Tai Sui is a group of deities in Chinese folk belief. Kew Ong Yah Temple in Singapore explains that sixty Tai Sui gods take turns, one per year, through the sixty-year Jiazi cycle, and that each person has a birth-year natal god. Wikipedia's Tai Sui article gives more background on the tradition.

For the next two years, the Tai Sui checker follows our folk year-sign rule set, which gives no traditional Tai Sui relationship for the Tiger in either year:

2026 (Horse year): no traditional Tai Sui relationship. Britannica confirms that 2026 is the Year of the Horse.
2027 (Goat year): no traditional Tai Sui relationship.

Meeting Tai Sui is a traditional reminder to be steady and considerate, not a forecast. The next Year of the Tiger begins on 19 Feb 2034.

What the research says about zodiac years and births

Some researchers have tested whether the zodiac changes birth patterns. The results are mixed, and most of the strongest studies focus on Dragon years rather than Tiger years. They are still useful for seeing how such claims are tested.

Yip, Lee and Cheung (2002) found that births in Hong Kong's Dragon years of 1988 and 2000 rose by 7.8% and 4.2% over the preceding year. The authors described a timing effect with little effect on cumulative fertility.
Goodkind (1993) reported that notable Dragon-year increases did not occur in Taiwan before 1976, and that the 1976 boom was mostly linked to marriage timing, abortion and coital behaviour.
Mocan and Yu (NBER) reported a birth jump in Dragon years and found that Dragon-born children in China were more likely to be college educated and had higher entrance exam scores, but that this effect disappeared once parents' expectations were taken into account.
Ma Yan (2010) found no zodiac birth preference at the national level in mainland China from 1949 to 2008, and attributed the fluctuations to population momentum.

How to check your Tiger year

If you are unsure whether your birthday falls in a Year of the Tiger, use the zodiac finder and enter your exact date. It applies the Chinese New Year boundary, so you do not need to work out the start date yourself. You can also read the Tiger horoscope for today, this week and this year, or see how Tiger appears in the 2027 Year of the Goat. For more on the rule itself, the article on how Chinese New Year decides your sign explains the boundary in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

When does the Year of the Tiger start?

The Year of the Tiger starts on Chinese New Year, so the date changes each cycle. The most recent one began on 1 February 2022 and ended on 21 January 2023. The next begins on 19 February 2034 and ends on 7 February 2035. Check any date near the start of the year against the table in this guide.

I was born in early January. Am I a Tiger?

It depends on the year. Because the zodiac year begins at Chinese New Year, a January birthday can fall in the previous sign's year. For example, 27 January 1998 falls before the 1998 Tiger year starts on 28 January, so it does not count as a Tiger year birth. Compare your exact date with the start and end dates in the table.

How often does the Year of the Tiger come around?

Tiger years repeat every 12 years, so the dates include 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022 and 2034. Years 60 apart share the same stem-and-branch name, such as 1926 and 1986. The Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables give the exact start and end dates for each one.

Is the Tiger compatible with the Pig and the Monkey?

In the traditional system, the Tiger's Six Harmonies partner is the Pig, and its clash sign is the Monkey. Compatibility in this tradition describes patterns between signs rather than scores. The compatibility tool on this site lists every pairing for the Tiger, including harm and punishment tags.

Does research prove that Tiger personality traits are real?

No. The traits of bravery, spirit and protectiveness are cultural traditions, not scientific findings. Studies of zodiac effects, such as work on Dragon-year births, look at population patterns, and they do not test personality traits for any single sign. Use the traits as a cultural reference rather than a measure of who someone is.

Does the Year of the Tiger affect Tai Sui in 2026 or 2027?

According to the folk year-sign rule set used by our Tai Sui checker, neither 2026 nor 2027 has a traditional Tai Sui relationship for the Tiger. Tai Sui is a traditional reminder to be steady and considerate, not a forecast. You can check the rule in the Tai Sui checker and read the background on Tai Sui in the sources.