Dinner at 9 PM? The World Map of Dinner Times

Walk into a Madrid restaurant at 6 p.m. and you may have the place to yourself. In Helsinki, the typical weekday dinner has already started. We color the world map by one question: what time is dinner? You'll see why Norwegian families can eat dinner around 4 or 5, what Germans mean by "evening bread," why "tea" in northern England can be a full meal, when Japan, Italy, Greece and India sit down to eat, why Spain eats the latest of all, and the country where the biggest meal of the day lands mid-afternoon. Traveler tip: in Madrid or Buenos Aires, book for nine, not six. In Norway or Finland, check the time, because dinner may be earlier than you think. What time do you eat dinner, and where are you from? Tell us in the comments. Narration is AI-generated (text-to-speech); script researched and fact-checked from the sources below. Maps and animations are made in code. CHAPTERS 0:00 What time is dinner? 0:35 America's dinner hour 1:15 The early birds 2:08 Dinner, tea, or supper 2:44 The late shift 3:31 Why Spain eats so late 4:25 The big afternoon meal 5:17 The big picture SOURCES IKEA Cooking & Eating Report 2026 (YouGov survey of 31,339 adults in 31 markets, Aug–Sep 2025): https://www.ikea.com/us/en/newsroom/corpor... Full report (PDF): https://assets.site.ingka.com/ingka-com/re... IKEA India press release on the same report (India: 8:14 pm) USDA Economic Research Service, Chart of Note (American Time Use Survey eating times): https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/cha... The Local Norway, "What time do Norwegians have dinner?": https://www.thelocal.no/20230310/what-time... The Local Norway, "Why do Norwegians eat lunch so early?": https://www.thelocal.no/20231201/why-do-no... The Local Norway, word of the day "kveldsmat": https://www.thelocal.no/20201117/norwegian... The Local Germany, on Abendbrot lovefood, on "tea" vs "dinner" in the UK Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2011 Survey on Time Use: https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/shakai/ The Local Italy, on Italian meal times Frommer's and This is Athens, on dining hours in Greece Spain's official tourism site, spain.info: https://www.spain.info/en/ BBC Travel, "The strange reason Spaniards eat late" Time in Spain (overview): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Spain "Living at the Wrong Time: Effects of Unmatching Official Time in Portugal and Western Spain," Biology 11(8):1130 (2022): https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/8/1130 U.S. International Trade Administration, Mexico business travel & etiquette: https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-g... Buenos Aires official tourism site: https://turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar/en Insight Guides, on dining in Argentina Map categories are generalizations; meal times vary by region, family, job and season. Survey figures are averages for weekday dinners. #MapManners #travel #food