Where does New Year start first?
The new year begins first on Kiribati’s Line Islands. Kiritimati (Christmas Island) uses Pacific/Kiritimati, UTC+14 — the earliest inhabited zone on Earth. When it is 1 January 00:00 there, it is still the morning of 31 December in western Europe.
About an hour later, Tonga, Samoa and most of New Zealand (UTC+13) reach the new year. Auckland is the first well-known large city whose fireworks make the news for many viewers. Sydney follows when it is midnight in eastern Australia — UTC+11 in summer.
Where does New Year arrive last?
The wave ends in the Pacific, on the other side of the international date line. Among inhabited places, Pago Pago (American Samoa, UTC−11) is among the last. Honolulu (Hawaii, UTC−10) is a little earlier. Baker Island (UTC−12) is uninhabited; we do not treat it as a city that “celebrates”.
Between Kiritimati and Pago Pago there are about 25 hours. That is why it can already be 1 January for you while someone else is still on New Year’s Eve — or the other way around.
What time is New Year in Australia?
Australia spans several time zones, and in December the east is on daylight saving time. New Year in Sydney or Melbourne therefore falls at a different moment (in your time) than in Adelaide (half-hour offset) or Perth. Pick a city, not “Australia” as a whole. You can search any Australian place on this page.
What time is New Year in Sydney?
In Sydney, 1 January begins at local midnight in Australia/Sydney. We convert that instant to your time zone, including the daylight saving offset that applies in New South Wales in December. The time “for you” also depends on whether your country uses daylight saving — we never store a fixed “+10 hours”.
What time is New Year in New York?
New York uses America/New_York. On 1 January it is on standard time (Eastern Standard Time, UTC−5). Times Square is famous, but the clock only cares about midnight in that zone. On the US East Coast, New Year is later than in Europe: in winter the gap is usually five or six hours, depending on where you live.
Why doesn’t the new year start everywhere at once?
Earth turns once in 24 hours. Local time roughly follows the sun: when the sun is highest it is about 12:00. Governments grouped that into time zones, usually in one-hour steps, sometimes 30 or 45 minutes. Midnight on 1 January is therefore a local clock time, not a global instant.
Then there is the international date line, mostly in the Pacific, opposite Greenwich. Crossing it eastwards moves the calendar back a day; westwards, forward a day. In the 1990s Kiribati moved some islands to UTC+14 so the whole country could share one calendar date — and so it became first to celebrate New Year.
Which countries have more than one time zone?
Among others the United States, Canada, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. In those countries “what time is New Year?” has no single answer. Pick a city: Sydney is not Perth, New York is not Los Angeles, and Moscow is not Vladivostok.
To convert any date — a birthday, Christmas or a phone call — use When is it there?. It uses the same IANA conversion as this page.