How to Get the Current Year in Python

Getting the current year is a common requirement in many Python applications, from generating copyright notices to filtering data. The standard way to accomplish this is by using the built-in datetime module, which provides a rich set of tools for working with dates and times.

This guide will demonstrate the most common methods for retrieving the current year, both as an integer and as a formatted string, and will clarify the subtle differences between the datetime.now() and datetime.today() methods.

Method 1: Using datetime.now().year (Integer)

The most common and straightforward way to get the current year is to use the datetime.now() method to get a datetime object representing the current moment, and then access its .year attribute.

Solution:

from datetime import datetime

# Get a datetime object for the current time
current_datetime = datetime.now()

# Access the .year attribute to get the year as an integer
current_year = current_datetime.year

print(current_year)
print(f"The type of current_year is: {type(current_year)}")

Output (will be the current year):

2025
The type of current_year is: <class 'int'>

Method 2: Using datetime.today().year (Integer)

The datetime.today() method provides an alternative way to get the current local datetime. Like now(), it returns a datetime object from which you can access the .year attribute.

Solution:

from datetime import datetime

# Get the current year using the .today() method
current_year = datetime.today().year

print(current_year)

Output (will be the current year):

2025

Method 3: Using strftime() to Get the Year as a String

If you need the year as a string, for example, for concatenation or display purposes, the .strftime() (string format time) method is the perfect tool. It allows you to format a datetime object into a string using specific format codes.

• %Y: Four-digit year (e.g., "2024")
• %y: Two-digit year (e.g., "24")

Solution:

from datetime import datetime

# Get the current datetime object
now = datetime.now()

# Format the datetime object to get the year as a string
year_4_digit = now.strftime('%Y')
year_2_digit = now.strftime('%y')

print(f"Four-digit year (string): '{year_4_digit}' (type: {type(year_4_digit)})")
print(f"Two-digit year (string): '{year_2_digit}' (type: {type(year_2_digit)})")

Output (will be the current year):

Four-digit year (string): '2025' (type: <class 'str'>)
Two-digit year (string): '25' (type: <class 'str'>)

Key Difference: now() vs. today()

note

While now() and today() often produce the same result, there is a subtle difference:

• datetime.today(): Returns the current local datetime. The resulting datetime object has no timezone information attached (it is "naive").
• datetime.now(tz=None): When called with no arguments, it behaves identically to datetime.today().
• datetime.now(tz=...): Its key advantage is that it can accept an optional timezone argument to create a timezone-"aware" datetime object.

Recommendation: For simply getting the current local year, either method is fine. However, many developers prefer to use datetime.now() consistently, as it is more versatile for timezone-related work.

Conclusion

Your Goal	Recommended Method	Result Type
Get the current year as an integer.	datetime.now().year	int
Get the four-digit year as a string.	datetime.now().strftime('%Y')	str
Get the two-digit year as a string.	datetime.now().strftime('%y')	str

By using the datetime module, you can easily and reliably retrieve the current year in the format that best suits your application's needs.