List of First Countries to Celebrate New Year 2025 and the Last

December 31, 2024 | 08:00 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The world's many different time zones are always fascinating, especially during a once-a-year event like New Year's Eve. When the clock strikes midnight, people often wonder which country celebrates the new year first. 

While January 1 is universally recognized as the beginning of each year, some countries celebrate the New Year before the rest of the world. This article will discuss which country celebrates the new year first, according to the World Population Review, The Sun, and Parade. 

What Country Celebrates the New Year First? 

The first country to celebrate the New Year is Kiribati, an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. Consisting of 33 islands in total, Kiribati has only 20 of them inhabited over its total territory recorded at 2,900 kilometers. 

Shortly after Kiribati rings in the New Year, other cities and countries of New Zealand's Chatham Islands, Russia's Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and Australia's Sydney follow suit as some of the first countries to celebrate the New Year. 

Conversely, the U.S. is among the last countries to celebrate the new year by comparing Kiribati's local time. 

Below is the snapshot of the first and last countries to celebrate the arrival of the new year as cited by The Sun UK, with all time zones completed in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

December 31 (GMT) 

• Kiribati - 10 a.m. 
• New Zealand’s Chatham Islands - 10:15 a.m. 
• New Zealand’s Mainland - 11:00 a.m. 
• Fiji - 12:00 pm 
• Majority of Australia - 1 p.m. 
• Australia’s Queensland - 2 p.m. 
• Northern part of Australia - 2:30 p.m.
• Japan, South Korea, North Korea - 3 p.m.
• China, Philippines, Singapore - 4 p.m.
• Indonesia, Thailand - 5 p.m. 
• Myanmar, Cocos Islands - 5:30 p.m. 
• Bangladesh - 6 p.m.
• Nepal - 6:15 p.m.
• Much of India - 6:30 p.m. 
• Pakistan - 7 p.m.
• Afghanistan - 7:30 p.m. 
• Azerbaijan - 8 p.m.
• Iran - 8:30 p.m. 
• Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey - 9 p.m.
• Greece, Israel - 10 p.m.
• Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy - 11 p.m. 
• UK, Iceland, Portugal - Midnight 

January 1 (GMT)

• Greenland - 2 a.m. 
• Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay - 3 a.m. 
• Parts of Canada, Venezuela, Puerto Rico - 4 a.m. 
• Majority of East Coast USA (New York and Washington DC) - 5 a.m. 
• Mexico - 6 a.m. 
• West Coast USA - 8 a.m. 
• Honolulu - 10 a.m.
• Baker Island and Howland Island - 12 p.m. 

The journey of New Year’s Eve celebrations across the globe is a captivating reminder of our world’s diversity and interdependence. With Kiribati universally acknowledged as the first country to celebrate the new year, the passage of time zones creates a unique and continuous celebration that unites the world in marking New Year’s Eve even more special. 

If you are into general knowledge of the world, let’s check out the coldest countries in the world here.

World Population Review | The Sun | Parade.com | Britannica 

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