As suggested by Alex the datetime module makes this easy: py> import datetime py> epoch = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0) py> print epoch 1970-01-01 00:00:00 py> today = datetime.datetime.today() py> d = today - epoch py> print d 13196 days, 9:50:44.266200 py> print d.days # timedelta object 13196