Is 2020 a new decade or not?!

[Utterlybutterly8]

Can someone help settle this for me please? I popped round to a neighbour’s house last night for a quick drink before midnight. We were talking about 2020 and I said that I couldn’t believe we were entering a whole new decade, or something along those lines. One of the other guests said that it’s not actually a new decade and won’t be until 2021. I’ve never heard this before so was a bit confused - 2020 is the start of a new decade isn’t it? I’ve noticed some of the papers are referring to it as such. AIBU to think he was wrong?

Of course it is. Maybe neighbour had had a few too many bevvies

2021 is the start of the new decade. We don't start counting at year 0, we start at year 1. So starts of decade are year 1, 11, 1681, 1731, 1921, 2021 to name a few random ones!

It is a new decade, we're in the 20's...

Well the century started with 2000, not 2001 so by their reasoning one of the last two decades would have had 11 years in it Its the new decade now.

Erm no @DappledThings you start counting at anything after 0.

Nope, there's no year 0. If there were a new archaeological discovery made now that was dated to the year before 1AD it would be 1BC, not 0.

Everyone went mental for the millennium one year early too!

Not that matters in the least. It's just another day. But a quick google will show you a lot of news outlets debating this question.

If that's the case why was 2000 classed as a new millennium, it would have been 2001....

Those saying you don’t start counting at 1. Do you give birth to a 1 year old? No, they are 0 years old

Well explained DappledThings

Beaten to it...

If that's the case why was 2000 classed as a new millennium, it would have been 2001
Because people got overexcited! 😀

It's definitely a new decade. They run from 0-9, which is why 31 December 1999 was Millennium Eve (a new millennium and a new decade).

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/21/us/when-does-the-decade-end-begin-trnd/index.html

You're both right.

@TwoleftUggs
@Taddda
*
If that's the case why was 2000 classed as a new millennium, it would have been 2001....*

Those of us who believe the new decade starts in 2021 also believe the new millennium started in 2001.
It follows the same logic with the first year being year 1.

Technically the new decade starts at 21 in terms of period of time. However it is the start of the 2020s by name.

@DappledThings (All that money spent on getting that millennium stadium built on time and they were a year early! Fools!)

Surely 1990 was the beginning of tge 90s, not the end of the 1980s?

I was born in 1970, does that mean I was born I n the 60s?

No

It's the 2020s now

Yes it is a new decade, we are now in the twenties. As someone said when a baby turns one they don't just start to exist. They existed for nearly a whole year before turning one.
Although we count in years and we won't get to one for another 364 days we are still living those 364 days in a new decade.

@Taddda I know! Just one of the utterly ridiculous things that happened then!

AliTheMinx generally we do refer to a decade as being 0-9, however the Gregorian calendar started at 1, so the new millennium definitely should not have started a year early. It is more understandable with decades though because we refer to the 90s or the noughties and now the twenties.

A decade could be any ten years. 1983-1993 is a decade as it's ten years. Hence you can refer to something that ran during that time as occurring over a decade. And we culturally talk about the '70s, '80s, '90s etc. Cultural and technical definitions differ.

I find it quite amusing!

Oooo, I actually used the term 'it took a decade' the other day just meaning '10 years'....
So basically we should just be saying 'it's the start of the 20's'...I get that!

Not that it matters but if you go back to day 1 and think logically the first 10 years ended on the last day of year 10 so strictly speaking each subsequent decade ends on the last day of years with 0 at the end.

In practice it's easier and neater to count decades etc as the end of the year that has a 9 at the end.

It has no actual bearing on anything though

If there is no ‘0’ does that mean we should jump from 2019 straight to 2021?

I know it went 1BC to 1AD because of no ‘0’.