Chinese Zodiac Calculator

Find your Chinese zodiac animal and element from your birth year — Metal Rat, Wood Dragon and the rest. A quick lookup done in your browser.

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Metal Dragon
Yang year
Animal · DragonElement · Metal

Bold, charismatic, ambitious.

The Chinese zodiac runs on a twelve-year cycle of animals — Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig — paired with one of five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) that changes every two years, so the full combination repeats every sixty years. 2020 is a Metal Rat; 1984 a Wood Rat. Note the Chinese year actually begins at Chinese New Year (late January to mid-February), so if you were born in those early weeks your sign is the previous animal. It's a quick calculation done in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

How to find your Chinese zodiac sign

Enter your birth year. We work out the animal from the year's place in the twelve-year cycle and the element from its place in the ten-year element cycle, then show the combined sign — for example Metal Rat — and the animal's traits.

Questions

What is the Chinese zodiac for 2020?
2020 is the year of the Metal Rat. The Rat is the first animal of the twelve-year cycle, and 2020 also falls in a Metal year, so the full sign is the Metal Rat.
Why does my sign depend on Chinese New Year?
The Chinese year begins at Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and mid-February. If you were born in those early weeks of the year, your sign is the previous year's animal rather than the one for the Gregorian year.
How do the elements work?
Alongside the twelve animals, there are five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — and each holds for two consecutive years. Animal and element together repeat on a sixty-year cycle, so the same combination (like Wood Rat) comes round once a lifetime.