August Zodiac Sign: Leo or Virgo?

Is August 22 Leo or Virgo? The two border days

Number of years out of 96, 1930 to 2025, US Eastern time; Pacific time in brackets. Every other day of August was the same sign in all 96 years in both time zones.

Your birth year. In US Eastern time the Sun entered Virgo on August 22 in these 28 years: 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025. In every other year from 1930 to 2025 it entered on August 23. So if your year is on the list, August 22 was Leo until the change and Virgo after it, and August 23 was Virgo all day. If it is not, August 22 was Leo all day and August 23 turned Virgo during the day. In Pacific time the change came three hours earlier on the clock. The calendar above gives the exact minute for your year.

August 22 is usually Leo. In 28 of the 96 years the Sun crossed into Virgo during that day in Eastern time, never earlier than mid-morning, so someone born late on August 22 in those years is a Virgo. August 23 is the mirror image: Virgo by the end of the day in every year, but with a stretch of Leo first in 68 of them, lasting until as late as 11 p.m. in a few early years.

Every year from 1930 to 2030 with the minute of the change: August 22 zodiac sign by year · August 23 zodiac sign by year.

August Leo: born August 1 to 22

An August Leo is a Leo of late summer, born after the sign has already been running for a week or more. In the tradition, Leo is fixed fire ruled by the Sun: warm, proud, steady in loyalty, happiest when the effort shows and someone notices it. Fixed means it holds a course, so the same Leo who throws the party also remembers who came.

The decans divide August Leos more than the dates do. The Sun reaches 10° Leo on August 2 in most years (74 of 96), so the first decan, the Sun's own in modern lists, is mostly a July birthday. From August 2 or 3 to August 12 you are in the second decan, which both the classical and modern lists give to Jupiter: the generous, expansive Leo. From about August 13 to 22 you are in the third, given to Mars, and that Leo is read as quicker to act and quicker to argue. The table below lists every day.

August Virgo: born August 23 to 31

An August Virgo is one of the first Virgos of the year. Every Virgo born in August, in all 96 years we counted, falls in the opening ten degrees of the sign, the first decan. Virgo is mutable earth ruled by Mercury, the one sign where Mercury is both at home and exalted in the classical tables, so the tradition pictures an observant, practical person who sees what needs fixing and fixes it without being asked.

The decan ruler sets the August Virgo apart. In the modern list the first decan belongs to Mercury again, a Virgo twice over. In the older table of faces used by Lilly, the first face of Virgo belongs to the Sun, the ruler of Leo. Read that way, a Virgo born in the last week of August keeps a little of the Leo it follows: still careful, but more willing to be seen doing the careful work.

August birthdays by decan

A decan is a 10° third of a sign, about ten days of the calendar. This is where each August birthday falls, with the Sun's position at noon:

Most common decan at noon US Eastern time, 1930 to 2025. Days where the answer changed with the year: August 2, August 12, August 13, August 22, August 23. Classical rulers from the table of faces (Chaldean order, as in Lilly's Christian Astrology); modern rulers as listed in Wikipedia's "Decan (astrology)".

Why the Leo–Virgo change moves from year to year

The early crossing is new. Through the 1950s the Sun never entered Virgo on August 22 in Eastern time; it happened in 3 years of the 1960s and in 5 of the six years from 2020 to 2025. Leap years pull the date back by a day, and from 1901 to 2099 every fourth year is a leap year, slightly more often than the solar year needs, so the change creeps earlier by about three quarters of a day per century. A Pacific clock runs three hours behind, so the change lands on August 22 there more often: 41 years against 28 in the East.

In 2026 the Sun entered Virgo on August 22 at 10:18 p.m. Eastern (7:18 p.m. Pacific). In 2027 it waits until August 23 at 4:13 a.m. Eastern.

When the Sun entered Virgo, 2021 to 2030

Moment the Sun reached 0° Virgo, from the astronomy-engine ephemeris (tropical zodiac), rounded to the minute, with that year's daylight saving time.

How much of August belongs to each sign

Leo holds about 22.2 days of the month and Virgo the remaining 8.8. By the last minute of August 31 the Sun has covered only 8 to 9 degrees of Virgo's 30, which is why most Virgos are born in September.

Days counted to the minute from midnight August 1 to midnight after August 31, US Eastern time, 1930 to 2025. Shortest Virgo share: 8.03 days (1931); longest: 9.54 days (2024).

Leo and Virgo side by side: symbol, element, ruler

The two signs are neighbors, one step apart on the zodiac, and they share almost nothing in the traditional scheme. Leo is fire, Virgo is earth. Leo is fixed and stays with a decision; Virgo is mutable and keeps adjusting. Leo's ruler is the Sun, which asks to be seen, and Virgo's is Mercury, which checks the details. The month turns from the height of Northern summer to the start of harvest, and the symbols follow: the Lion, then the Maiden holding an ear of wheat.

Each sign in full: Leo zodiac sign · Virgo zodiac sign.

Famous people born in August

Leo outnumbers Virgo on this list as it does on the calendar: Leo has about 22.2 of the 31 days.

♌︎ August Leo

• Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and lunar explorerAug 5, 1930
• Elinor Ostrom, American political economistAug 7, 1933
• Whitney Houston, American singer, actress, and film producerAug 9, 1963
• Madonna, American singerAug 16, 1958
• Robert De Niro, American actorAug 17, 1943
• Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actressAug 20, 1992
• Andrew Garfield, English and American actorAug 20, 1983
• Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinterAug 21, 1986

♍︎ August Virgo

• Rupert Grint, English actorAug 24, 1988
• Sean Connery, Scottish actorAug 25, 1930
• Warren Buffett, American investor, entrepreneur and businessmanAug 30, 1930

Full birth charts with a recorded birth time, born in August: Charli XCX (August 2, Leo) · Tom Brady (August 3, Leo) · Whitney Houston (August 9, Leo) · Kylie Jenner (August 10, Leo) · Jennifer Lawrence (August 15, Leo) · Ben Affleck (August 15, Leo) · Madonna (August 16, Leo) · Austin Butler (August 17, Leo) · Demi Lovato (August 20, Leo) · Dua Lipa (August 22, Leo) · Blake Lively (August 25, Virgo) · Keke Palmer (August 26, Virgo) · Jack Black (August 28, Virgo) · Cameron Diaz (August 30, Virgo).

Birth dates from Wikidata, only people whose Sun was in the same sign for the whole birthday in every time zone. The chart pages use birth times on record.

August birthdays in US birth data

In US records from 2000 to 2014, August averaged 11,914 births a day, second only to September among the twelve months. About two thirds of August babies were Leos, and one in fifteen was born on August 22 or 23, the two days where only the year and hour can settle the sign.

US births 2000 to 2014 from the Social Security Administration, as published by FiveThirtyEight: 5,540,170 August births. Average per day: 11,914.

Leo and Virgo in love

Leo and Virgo meet often, if only because they share a birthday month. As signs they are a semisextile, neighbors with different elements and modes, and the tradition expects them to misread each other at first: Leo wants praise said out loud, Virgo shows care by helping and by pointing out what could work better. The pair works when Virgo puts the praise into words and Leo hears the correction as attention.

For long-term matches the tradition sends Leo toward the other fire signs, Aries and Sagittarius, and Virgo toward Taurus and Capricorn, the other earth signs. Those are readings of one planet in each chart, so compare two full birth dates before you take them as a verdict.

Leo and Virgo compatibility · Leo and Leo · Virgo and Virgo · Leo's soulmate · Virgo's soulmate · compatibility by two birth dates

Questions about August zodiac signs

Zodiac signs of the other months

• January: Capricorn to 18, Aquarius from 22
• February: Aquarius to 17, Pisces from 20
• March: Pisces to 18, Aries from 22
• April: Aries to 18, Taurus from 21
• May: Taurus to 19, Gemini from 22
• June: Gemini to 19, Cancer from 23
• July: Cancer to 21, Leo from 24
• August: Leo to 21, Virgo from 24
• September: Virgo to 21, Libra from 24
• October: Libra to 21, Scorpio from 25
• November: Scorpio to 20, Sagittarius from 24
• December: Sagittarius to 20, Capricorn from 23

Days that are always one sign, US Eastern and Pacific time, 1930 to 2025. The days between depend on the year. All twelve months in one table: zodiac signs by month. All twelve signs with the exact change by year: zodiac sign dates.

Written by The Zodiac Atlas editorial team with the help of AI and edited by a person. Every date, count and share on this page comes from our own run of the astronomy-engine ephemeris (tropical zodiac) over 1930 to 2025, with historical US time zone rules. Traits follow the Western tradition. Astrology is a symbolic tradition, not a science.