Country Overshoot Days 2026

Country Overshoot Day Calendar & Calculations 2026

A country’s overshoot day marks the date when Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed at the same level as the people in that country.

This complements a country’s deficit day, which refers to the date by which the residents of the country begin to demand more than their country’s ecosystems can provide in the entire year. Both days provide meaningful insight into a country’s performance.

Country Overshoot Days are published annually. They are made available at the end of December of the year prior, using the latest data from the most recent edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts – which is now the 2025 edition. Earth Overshoot Day’s date is announced on World Environment Day (June 5).

Based on the 2025 edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts

Country Overshoot Days for 2026 are based on the accounts’ 2025 edition. For most countries, the calculated dates reflect their 2024 situation, the latest data point currently available. The full 2025 edition was released on Earth Day 2025 (April 22) and was prepared by York University’s Ecological Footprint Initiative for Footprint Data Foundation (FoDaFo), the governing body of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts.

The 2025 edition includes results from 1961 to 2024. Due to time lags in data reporting, results from 2022 to 2024 are based on a mix of actual data and preliminary estimates. These preliminary estimates, similar to GDP forecasts, are less robust than those for earlier years, which are based on fully reported data sets.

Detailed information on the 2025 edition, including methodological improvements and updated and revised data sets, are available here. For reference, you can access the release notes of the 2023 edition as well as the interim 2024 edition. Explanations about how shifts in the accounts have affected Country Overshoot Day estimates are explained here, using the example of the Netherlands.

To understand time trends, consult the latest official edition on the Footprint Data Platform. Its interactive map allows you to view country-specific trends from 1961 to the present.

At the bottom of the page, following the table of country overshoot dates, there is a brief explanation of the implications of using the newest data edition.

Example: Calculating Switzerland’s Overshoot Day

Switzerland’s 2026 Overshoot Day is based on data from the 2025 edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. Since the most recent data point is for 2024, Switzerland’s 2026 Overshoot Day reflects the country’s resource performance in 2024:

• Switzerland’s Ecological Footprint: 4.15 global hectares (gha) per person in 2024
• Global biocapacity: 1.48 gha per person in 2024

Thus, in 2024, humanity would need (4.15/ 1.48)  = 2.8 Earths to support itself if everyone lived like the Swiss.

Since 2026 contains 365 days, we can determine Swiss Overshoot Day:

365 [days in 2026] * (1.48/4.15) = 130.1 [days].

This means humanity would have exhausted the annual regenerative resource budget the day after the 130th day of 2026, which is May 11th. Also note: using up the entire budget would leave nothing for wild species.

Results

Here, in Table 1, is the list of the Country Overshoot Days for 2026, for Switzerland and 85 other countries. It also lists the EU Overshoot Day for the European Union containing 27 countries. It will be on May 3 this year.

These dates were released in December 2025, and are based on the latest edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts capturing the countries’ 2024 situation.

Table 1: Country Overshoot Days for 2026

Countries Excluded from the Above Table

If a country’s Ecological Footprint per person is smaller than global biocapacity per person (1.48 gha), humanity would not exceed the planet’s regenerative capacity within a year if everyone consumed like that country. These countries are therefore omitted from the figure at the top and from table 1 above. 13 of them are listed below in table 2 which also shows what percentage of Earth would be used if everyone around the world lived as the residents of those countries.

Some countries are also excluded due to incomplete or unreliable data, as data quality varies across UN datasets. These are countries which the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts identify with a with a low data quality score.

You can download the 2025 edition public dataset with country results. The 2026 edition should be available by Earth Day 2026, and will form the basis for the Country Overshoot Days 2027. Also note: In leap years, like 2024 or 2028, calculations are adjusted for a 366-day year instead of 365.

Table 2: Countries without an Country Overshoot Day in 2026. These are countries with their current per person consumption Footprints smaller than the world’s per person biocapacity.

How Have Country Overshoot Days Changed Over Time?

To analyze trends in Country Overshoot Days, consult the Footprint Data Platform, which provides consistent time series data, all based on the same National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts edition.

Comparing Country Overshoot Days across different editions comes with a challenge. Because some change results from improvements in underlying data, some from sharpened accounting algorithms, and the remainder from actual shifts in consumption. This is explained using the example of the Netherlands here. These are key changes in data input from the 2023 edition to the 2025 edition:

1. Agricultural area data: Updates to grazing land and cropland statistics from the UN FAO ResourceStat.
2. Global Carbon Budget data: Revised estimates for oceanic carbon uptake.
3. Trade classifications: Adjustments in carbon embodied in trade due to restructuring in UN Comtrade datasets.

For this edition change, the change due to different input data is larger for most countries than the actual change due to shifts in consumption. For clarity, the table below shows how much change in overshoot dates for 2022 is driven by:

• Updates in input data and methodology (5th column in table 3 below) (the difference between the 2022 results in the 2023 edition versus the 2022 results in the 2025 edition), versus
• Real shifts in consumption patterns (6th column in table 3 below) (the difference between 2023 and 2024 in the 2025 edition).

The data-input-driven change can be assessed by comparing the 2022 results from the 2023 edition with those of the 2025 edition. The consumption change can be determined by comparing results for 2023 and 2024 within the preliminary 2025 edition. For deeper insights, visit the Footprint Data Platform, which show the 2025 edition.

Table 3: Dates of Country Overshoot Days in 2026 and changes due to updated data inputs and due to country’s actual change of consumption levels, plus additional info such as number of Earths, and days to Overshoot Day. Essentially, table 3 expands on table 1.

Additional Resources

Country Deficit Day
Country data on Footprint Data Platform
How edition changes shift historical Country Overshoot Days
Earth Overshoot Day
About the Ecological Footprint
About Country Overshoot Days
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