Dates

In body text, DD Month YYYY is the clearest format:

• For numbers 1–9, only use 1 digit (without a preceding 0). For 10–31, use 2 digits.
• Spell out the month in full. 
• Give the year in 4 digits.

You don’t need to use an ordinal number (1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on), even though you might pronounce the date that way.

If space is tight, such as in tables, graphics or file labels, use DD-MM-YY with hyphens. For numbers 1–9, you only need to use 1 digit (without a preceding 0) unless you need consistency across a range of dates or you are using them for file sorting. But never shorten the year to 1 digit as this will be unclear.

Of course, if you’re writing for an international audience, consider using DD Mth YY instead so your meaning is absolutely clear. Otherwise, the example above might be misread as 2 July 09.

In body text, it’s usually best to write date spans with words rather than dashes. For dates from the same month, you don’t need to repeat the month.

In tables, graphics and other places with limited space:

• for dates from the same month, separate the numerals with an unspaced en dash
• for dates from different months, use a spaced en dash
• if you’re including the days of the week, use a spaced en dash. 
  

Whichever approach you use, take care not to mix the words ‘from’ and ‘between’ with an en dash, as these constructions are awkward and hard to read.