Next Friday the 13th: Dates for 2027 and 2028

When is the next Friday the 13th?

The next Friday the 13th after 13 November 2026 is Friday 13 August 2027 ^[1][12]. There is no other one between those two dates: none of the eight 13ths from December 2026 to July 2027 falls on a Friday.

After August 2027, the following Friday the 13th is Friday 13 October 2028 ^[2]. Both dates match the public weekday calculators cited here and the standard Gregorian calendar rules.

That means 2027 and 2028 are both quiet years for the superstition, with exactly one Friday the 13th each. The busier years come next: 2029 has two (April and July) and 2030 also has two (September and December).

If the date matters for planning (a wedding, a product launch, a flight you would rather not take), the safe rule is to check the 13th of each month you care about. The table below lists every Friday the 13th up to the end of 2030.

How many Friday the 13ths are there in 2027 and 2028?

There is exactly one Friday the 13th in 2027 (13 August) and exactly one in 2028 (13 October) ^[1][2].

Every calendar year has at least one Friday the 13th and never more than three ^[4]. A year gets three when it is a common year that starts on a Thursday or a leap year that starts on a Sunday ^[4]. 2026 began on a Thursday, which is why it had three: 13 February, 13 March and 13 November ^[13][12].

The gap from 13 August 2027 to 13 October 2028 is 427 days, or 14 months. A direct count over a full 400-year Gregorian cycle shows that 427 days is the longest possible wait between two Friday the 13ths and 28 days the shortest. The shortest gap happens when February of a common year and the following March both have one, as in 2026.

On average the calendar produces about 1.72 Friday the 13ths a year ^[3]. So a year with only one, like 2027 or 2028, is below average, while 2026, with three, was well above it.

Why does the 13th fall on a Friday more often than other days?

Because the Gregorian calendar repeats exactly every 400 years, and within that cycle the 13th falls on a Friday 688 times, more than on any other weekday ^[3].

Four hundred Gregorian years contain 146,097 days, which divides exactly into 20,871 weeks. So the pattern of weekdays repeats perfectly every 400 years. In that cycle there are 4,800 months and therefore 4,800 thirteenths ^[3].

Counting them gives: Friday 688, Sunday 687, Wednesday 687, Monday 685, Tuesday 685, Thursday 684 and Saturday 684 ^[3]. The weekday pattern was set out by B. H. Brown in 1933, in the American Mathematical Monthly ^[3]. The difference is tiny (Friday holds 14.33% of all 13ths, against 14.25% for the least common days), but it is real ^[3].

The reason is the leap-year rule. Most years divisible by four are leap years, but century years are leap years only when divisible by 400 (2000 was, 2100 will not be). That uneven pattern means the first day of a month is slightly more often a Sunday than any other day, and a month that starts on a Sunday always has a Friday the 13th.

A calculation over every month from 2000 to 2399 gives the same totals as the published table, which is a useful check for readers who want to verify the claim themselves.

Where does the Friday the 13th superstition come from?

The fear of Friday the 13th appears to be fairly modern: the earliest clear examples found so far are from the 19th century, even though Friday and the number 13 each had an unlucky reputation much earlier ^[4][5].

The Library of Congress folklorist Stephanie Hall writes that the idea "is not very old" and "seems to have arisen in the 19th century" ^[5]. Her colleague Stephen Winick found French references to an unlucky Friday the 13th, the first two from 1834, including a play whose character blames his misfortunes on being born on a Friday, 13 December. Hall writes that by the middle of the century the idea was common in France ^[5].

In the United States, the Library of Congress records that the Thirteen Club of Manhattan held its first dinner for 13 people on Friday 13 January 1882; the club set out to defy superstitions ^[4][5]. The BBC found no sign of a combined Friday-the-13th belief at the club's foundation; it appeared some time between 1882 and 1907 ^[4].

In 1907 the stock promoter Thomas W. Lawson published the novel Friday, the Thirteenth, about a broker who exploits traders' fear of the date ^[4]. The novel is often credited with popularising the superstition, although other accounts point to mentions in English-language newspapers and books that predate it ^[4][5].

Popular explanations that reach further back, such as the arrest of the Knights Templar in France on Friday 13 October 1307, are attempts to find an older origin. The problem, as the Library of Congress notes, is showing historical evidence for the belief before 1900 ^[5].

The separate ingredients are older. In many parts of Europe Friday was seen as a poor day to start a journey or a marriage, partly because Jesus was executed on a Friday, while 13 carried both negative and positive meanings depending on the place ^[5].

Is Friday the 13th really unlucky? What the studies say

Most careful studies find that Friday the 13th is not more dangerous than an ordinary Friday; the few positive findings come from small samples or have not been confirmed by later work ^{[6][7][8][9][10]}.

The 1993 BMJ study

Scanlon and colleagues compared Friday the 13th with Friday the 6th in the South West Thames region of England. They counted fewer cars on part of the M25 motorway on the 13th, but more hospital admissions for transport accidents (65 against 45) ^[6]. Their conclusion, that the risk of such an admission may have risen by as much as 52% and that staying at home was recommended, is often quoted ^[6]. One of the authors later said the paper was "a bit of fun" written for the journal's Christmas issue ^[4].

Finnish traffic data

In 2002 Simo Näyhä reported, from Finnish data for 1971-1997, a risk ratio of 1.63 for traffic deaths among women on Friday the 13th and 1.02 among men, and suggested anxiety as a cause ^[7]. He stressed that the absolute effect was very small, about one death per 5 million person-days ^[7].

A follow-up by Radun and Summala used Finland's national road-accident database for 1989-2002, including the larger injury-accident data, and compared 21 Fridays the 13th with the Fridays before and after. They found no significant differences for women or men ^[8].

Hospitals, ambulances and surgery

A review of 49,094 patient encounters at 6 hospital emergency departments between November 2002 and December 2009 found no increase in total visits on Friday the 13th; of 13 categories, only penetrating trauma was higher ^[9]. A 2025 letter in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, titled "Friday the 13th is not associated with increases in emergency medical services (EMS) patient volume", reports the same for ambulance (EMS) call volume ^[11].

A population-based study of 19,747 adults having one of 25 common operations found no worse outcomes for surgery on Friday the 13th than on the Fridays either side, at 30 days, 90 days or one year ^[10].

Does fear of the date change how people behave?

Possibly, and that is the main thing the research can still argue about: if anxious people stay home or drive less, accident counts can move without the date itself doing anything ^[6][8].

The 1993 study counted fewer vehicles on part of the motorway on the 13th, which may point to people changing plans ^[6]. Radun and Summala made the same point: their data could not measure exposure, so they could not rule out that worried drivers simply avoided the road ^[8].

The fear has a name, paraskevidekatriaphobia, which the Library of Congress describes as a fear of Friday the 13th ^[5]. For most people it is a passing joke, not a clinical problem.

The practical lesson from the evidence is simple. Ordinary risks such as speed, fatigue, alcohol and weather matter far more for a given day than its date. Nothing in the studies suggests changing medical appointments, surgery dates or travel because a Friday falls on the 13th ^[9][10].

This guide is general information, not medical advice. Anyone with real anxiety that disrupts daily life can talk to a qualified health professional.

Friday the 13th dates to 2030

After 13 August 2027 and 13 October 2028, the next Friday the 13ths are 13 April 2029, 13 July 2029, 13 September 2030 and 13 December 2030. These four dates match the 2029 and 2030 calendars on timeanddate.com ^[14][15].

The earliest clear written examples of the Friday-the-13th belief come from 19th-century France ^[5]. Other places attach different meanings to the number 13: the Library of Congress notes that it is seen as lucky in parts of Europe ^[5].

The calendar rule is the same for any year: a month that begins on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th.