The Virgo sign guide
- Dates
- August 23 – September 22
- Element
- Earth
- Modality
- Mutable
- Ruled by
- Mercury
Virgo is the sign astrology links with careful observation and practical help: the person who spots what needs work and does something about it. Its dates also include the busiest birthdays in the United States.
What Virgos are like
Virgo falls at the end of the Northern Hemisphere's summer, and astrologers call it mutable earth: practical, but willing to change the method when something isn't working. A Virgo notices what's broken and reworks the fix until it holds. The sign's symbol is the maiden holding a sheaf of wheat, a harvest image, and astrologers tie it to sorting what's useful from the rest.
Virgo's fussiness is selective. Plenty of Virgos run a messy home and an exacting desk, because the care goes where it feels useful. What they tend to share is a low tolerance for sloppy reasoning, their own included. The trouble starts when one mistake becomes a reason to question everything they've done.
In relationships a Virgo shows care by doing things: handling the errand you've been dreading, remembering the appointment you forgot. Offering a fix before asking what you need can cause friction, though.
At work, Virgos are often the ones who end up running the process nobody else wanted to own, then improving it. Editing and quality control suit that eye for precision. The harder part is deciding when the work is finished.
Don't quite see yourself in Virgo? For most people, the Moon or Rising sits in another sign. Find my Moon and Rising free
America's busiest birthdays fall in Virgo
In Social Security Administration birth counts for 2000 to 2014, published by FiveThirtyEight, Virgo's dates had more births per day than any other sign's. From August 23 to September 22, an average day saw 11,989 US births, against about 11,350 across the whole year. That's 8.96% of all births in those 15 years from 8.49% of the calendar.
Averaged date by date over the 15 years, half of the 20 busiest birthdays are Virgo dates, including the top three.
Busiest US birthdays, each date averaged over 2000–2014 (SSA) | Date | Births per day | Sign |
|---|
| September 12 | 12,735 | Virgo |
| September 19 | 12,696 | Virgo |
| September 20 | 12,542 | Virgo |
| December 19 | 12,446 | Sagittarius |
| September 10 | 12,445 | Virgo |
Mercury's double claim on Virgo
Mercury rules two signs, Gemini and Virgo. In the Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy also makes Virgo Mercury's exaltation, the sign where a planet is strongest, "in which the dry autumn is signified." Venus, by the same table, has its depression there, the sign where a planet is weakest (Book I, chapters 17 and 19). No other planet in his scheme is both at home and exalted in the same sign.
Astrologers connect Mercury with language and reasoning. In Virgo that usually means checking the details and finding the clearer way to say something.
The weak Venus is a reason to check your own Venus sign before taking the Virgo love stereotypes to heart. With the Sun in Virgo, Venus can sit anywhere from Cancer to Scorpio, and a Virgo with Venus in Libra loves very differently from one with Venus in Virgo. The rising sign matters too: it's how astrologers read the way you meet new people and situations.
Virgo dates for 2026 to 2028
We computed the Sun's entry into Virgo and Libra on NASA's DE440s ephemeris and checked every time against JPL Horizons, which agrees within two seconds. Two birthdays depend on the year. August 22 is Leo all day in 2027, Leo until 10:19 p.m. Eastern in 2026, and Virgo from 10:01 a.m. in 2028. September 22 starts as Virgo every year, then turns Libra at 8:05 p.m. in 2026 and at 7:45 a.m. in 2028.
The stars of Virgo keep a different schedule. Because of precession, the Sun is in front of the constellation Virgo from about September 16 to October 31, and at 44 and a half days in 2026 that's its longest stay in any constellation along its path. Astrology's Virgo is the 30° slice of the tropical zodiac, so the two overlap only for the last six days or so of Virgo season.
Virgo season in US Eastern time (UT is EDT plus four hours) | Year | Starts | Ends |
|---|
| 2026 | Aug 22, 10:19 p.m. EDT | Sep 22, 8:05 p.m. EDT |
| 2027 | Aug 23, 4:14 a.m. EDT | Sep 23, 2:02 a.m. EDT |
| 2028 | Aug 22, 10:01 a.m. EDT | Sep 22, 7:45 a.m. EDT |
Eclipses and Jupiter in Virgo
Two lunar eclipses in 2026 and 2027 fall with the Moon in Virgo: a total one on March 3, 2026, at 12°54' Virgo, and a penumbral one on February 20, 2027, at 2°06'. The dates are from NASA's lunar eclipse catalog; the degrees are from our ephemeris run.
Jupiter moves into Virgo on July 26, 2027, and stays until August 24, 2028, its first visit since 2015 and 2016. Tradition counts Virgo as a weak sign for Jupiter, and the Jupiter in Virgo guide explains why that label undersells it.