diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 54145128c2e..b15d03c90ef 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #4687: Fix accuracy of garbage collection runtimes displayed with
+  gc.DEBUG_STATS.
+
 - Issue #8464: tarfile no longer creates files with execute permissions set
   when mode="w|" is used.
 
diff --git a/Modules/gcmodule.c b/Modules/gcmodule.c
index 1b5cf89ba62..30587244321 100644
--- a/Modules/gcmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/gcmodule.c
@@ -804,13 +804,13 @@ collect(int generation)
 	}
 
 	if (debug & DEBUG_STATS) {
-		t1 = get_time();
 		PySys_WriteStderr("gc: collecting generation %d...\n",
 				  generation);
 		PySys_WriteStderr("gc: objects in each generation:");
 		for (i = 0; i < NUM_GENERATIONS; i++)
 			PySys_WriteStderr(" %" PY_FORMAT_SIZE_T "d",
 					  gc_list_size(GEN_HEAD(i)));
+		t1 = get_time();
 		PySys_WriteStderr("\n");
 	}