Kiribati, a country in Oceania comprising 32 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island, observes three time zones, ranging from UTC+12:00 to +14.Kiribati at The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 24 April 2021. Kiribati does not observe daylight saving time.Timezones in Kiribati. WorldData.Info. Retrieved 24 April 2021.

The three given time zones are for the three primary island groups that form Kiribati, and their associated atolls: Gilbert Island Time (GILT; UTC+12:00), Phoenix Island Time (PHOT; UTC+13:00) and Line Islands Time (LINT; UTC+14:00).Time Zones in Kiribati. TimeAndDate.com. Retrieved 24 April 2021. UTC+14:00 is the most advanced time zone in the world, making Kiribati one of the first countries to celebrate a New Year, although Samoa also used to observe UTC+14:00 during their daylight saving time,Samoa opts for daylight saving, 28 November 2008. Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 9 May 2021.Time Zones in Samoa. TimeAndDate.com. Retrieved 9 May 2021. but not since 2021.

Although Kiribati spans both the equator and the 180th meridian, the International Date Line goes around Kiribati and swings far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian.Maps of Kiribati. Retrieved 24 April 2021.Kiribati Islands. Pacific Islands Medical Aid, Inc. Retrieved 28 April 2021. This was the result of the Phoenix and Line Islands switching in 1994 from UTC−11:00 and −10 to UTC+13:00 and +14 respectively.

History

When the Republic of Kiribati was founded in 1979, it had three time zones: UTC+12:00 in the Gilbert Islands, UTC−11:00 in the Phoenix Islands and UTC−10:00 in the Line Islands. Gilbert was west of the international dateline and the Phoenix and Line Islands were east of it. This meant that the Gilbert Islands were nearly a full day ahead of the eastern islands.Pearlman, Jonathan (29 December 2011) Samoa prepares to skip Dec 30. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2021. (Subscription required)

For administrative purposes, the time zones had to be adjusted. To solve it, the government of Kiribati introduced a change of date for its eastern half on 31 December 1994,Lane, Megan (10 May 2011) How does a country change its time zone?. BBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2021. from time zones UTC−11:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC+14:00. Before this, UTC+13:00 and UTC+14:00 did not exist.

The revision of Kiribati's time zone meant that the international date line in effect moved 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) eastwards to go around this country, so that the Line Islands, including the inhabited Kiritimati island, started the year 2000 on its territory before any other country on Earth, a feature the Kiribati government capitalised on as a potential tourist draw.Letts, Quentin (25 January 1996) Pacific braces for millennium storm over matter of degrees. The Times. Retrieved 26 April 2021.

IANA time zone database The IANA time zone database in the file zone.tab contains three time zones for Kiribati. Data below is for Kiribati directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself:Australasia at the tz database. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Retrieved 9 May 2021. c.c.* coordinates* TZ* Comments UTC offset DST

References

External links Time in Kiribati at TimeAndDate.com