Overview
- Kiritimati operates on UTC+14, the earliest civil time zone in use, which makes it the first inhabited territory to mark the New Year.
- Independent Samoa is among the earliest celebrants after shifting west of the date line in 2011, while nearby American Samoa remained east and now lags by a calendar day.
- Kiribati altered the date line in the mid‑1990s so the entire nation shares the same calendar day, producing a large eastward deviation around its islands.
- In Argentina (UTC−3), the moment Kiritimati reaches January 1 occurs at 7:00 a.m. on December 31.
- The final places to greet 2026 are the uninhabited U.S. islands Baker and Howland at UTC−12, with American Samoa and Niue among the last inhabited locations.