Which country celebrates New Year’s first?

As the year draws to a close there are now only a few hours of 2023 remaining. However, depending on where you are located in the world, 2024 could be a lot closer than you think...

People around the world will celebrate the New Year as the clock strikes twelve in their respective time zones, meaning that the NYE celebration spreads around the world like a wave.

The first region to celebrate the New Year is Kiritimati in Oceania. The small island, also known as Christmas Island, inhibits a time zone 14 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The first major islands to reach midnight in the region will be Tonga, Samoa and parts of New Zealand, one hour later. One hour after that the most easterly parts of Russia, along with Fiji, will enter 2024.

GMT is the time zone that passes through Greenwich in London, United Kingdom. Here, midnight will come exactly 14 hours after the first bottles of bubbly were popped in Kiritimati. But even at this stage, only around half of the planet will have hit midnight.

In the United States, the east coast will be the first to reach 2024, doing so five hours after London. Areas covered by Eastern Standard Time are five hours behind GMT, meaning that the Time Square celebrations in New York City can begin.

One hour after, areas covered by Central Standard Time will reach midnight, followed by Mountain Standard Time one hour later. Pacific Standard Time comes one hour later, followed by Alaska Standard Time.

This means that, 22 hours after the beginning of 2024 in Oceania, all of mainland United States will have finally made it into the New Year.

The last place on earth to hit 2024 will be the islands of American Samoa, back in the Pacific Ocean where things first started. A full 24 hours after the fellow Pacific island of Kiritimati entered into the New Year, the residents of American Samoa will do the same.