Years to Decades (yr to dec)
1 year equals 0.1 decades exactly.
How to convert years to decades
To convert years to decades, multiply the number of years by 0.1. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply decades by 10.
decades = years × 0.1
Example: 10 years = 1 decade.
Months and years are not constant. This site uses the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, so one 'year' converts to 365.2425 days, not 365; use 'common year' for exactly 365 days.
About these units
Year (yr)
The average Gregorian calendar year of 365.2425 days (31,556,952 seconds). A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366.
A year is the Earth's trip around the Sun, but there are several versions. The tropical year, which tracks the seasons, is about 365.2422 days. The sidereal year, measured against the stars, is about 365.2564 days, roughly 20 minutes longer, because the Earth's axis precesses. Calendars must squeeze these into whole days, which is the origin of leap years. English year descends from Old English gear, while Latin annus, the source of annual, comes from a different root.
The Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII's bull of 24 February 1582, fixed the problem of Julian drift that had moved the March equinox away from 21 March and upset the date of Easter. Ten days were skipped, so Thursday 4 October was followed by Friday 15 October. Its rule of skipping leap days in century years not divisible by 400 gives a mean year of 365.2425 days, the value this site uses for the year. Britain and its empire switched in 1752 and Russia in 1918. Scientists write the year as a, with the Julian year fixed at 31,557,600 seconds.
1 year = 31,556,952 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Year; Wikipedia: Gregorian calendar
Decade (dec)
Ten years.
Greek dekas, a group of ten, gave English decade, and the Latin equivalent decennium survives in words like decennial. The idea of naming whole decades is newer. The convention of grouping years by their tens digit, so that 1960 to 1969 is the 1960s, became common in the late 19th century, and the 20th century then produced a gallery of nicknames such as the Roaring Twenties and the Swinging Sixties.
A decade is ten years, which on this site means ten average Gregorian years. The two counting styles can disagree, in the same way as with centuries: since the AD calendar has no year zero, a strict reading makes the first decade run from year 1 to year 10. A 2019 YouGov poll of 13,582 US adults found 64 percent expected the next decade to be 2020 to 2029, 17 percent said 2021 to 2030, and 19 percent did not know. Most people prefer the zero-to-nine version.
1 decade = 315,569,520 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Decade; Wikipedia: Year zero
Related conversions
- Decades to years (reverse)
- Years to seconds
- Years to minutes
- Years to hours
- Years to days
- Years to weeks
- Years to months
- Years to milliseconds
- Years to microseconds
- Years to nanoseconds
- Years to centuries
- Years to millennia
- Years to picoseconds
- Seconds to decades
- Minutes to decades
- Hours to decades
- Days to decades
- Weeks to decades
- Months to decades
- Milliseconds to decades
- Microseconds to decades
- Nanoseconds to decades
- Centuries to decades
- Millennia to decades
See all time units.