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Time zones by the numbers

Russia runs on 11 time zones; China, almost as wide, runs on one. Most countries' clocks are on the hour, but ten offsets aren't, and most capitals keep their clocks ahead of the sun.

Computed from the site’s dataLast checked 17 October 2026Suggest a correction

Every country with more than one standard time on its own territory.

Each country's time zones here are its standard times, ignoring daylight saving, on the country's own territory. Overseas territories have their own entries in GeoNames, so France counts one zone, not the many its territories around the world add.[1] Counted that way, seventeen countries have more than one.[1][2]

The most time zones

Russia has 11, from UTC+2 in Kaliningrad to UTC+12 in Kamchatka and Chukotka.[1][2] Canada and the United States come next with 6 each, then Australia with 5.[1]

Kazakhstan used to be on this list. On 1 March 2024 most of the country, including Astana and Almaty, put its clocks back an hour to UTC+5, and the whole country has kept one time since.[3][1] It spans 41° of longitude, nearly three hours of the sun's travel.[4]

#CountryZonesFromTo
1Flag of RussiaRussia11UTC+2UTC+12
2Flag of CanadaCanada6UTC−8UTC−3:30
3Flag of United StatesUnited States6UTC−10UTC−5
4Flag of AustraliaAustralia5UTC+8UTC+10:30
5Flag of BrazilBrazil4UTC−5UTC−2
6Flag of MexicoMexico4UTC−8UTC−5
7Flag of ChileChile3UTC−6UTC−3
8Flag of IndonesiaIndonesia3UTC+7UTC+9
9Flag of KiribatiKiribati3UTC+12UTC+14
10Flag of DR CongoDR Congo2UTC+1UTC+2
11Flag of EcuadorEcuador2UTC−6UTC−5
12Flag of MicronesiaMicronesia2UTC+10UTC+11
13Flag of MongoliaMongolia2UTC+7UTC+8
14Flag of New ZealandNew Zealand2UTC+12UTC+12:45
15Flag of Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea2UTC+10UTC+11
16Flag of PortugalPortugal2UTC−1UTC+0
17Flag of SpainSpain2UTC+0UTC+1
Standard time only, on each country's own territory. China and Ukraine are counted on their official time (see below).

One clock for a whole continent

China stretches 61° from west to east on the map, about four hours of the sun's travel, but its national time, Beijing time, is UTC+8 everywhere.[4][2] In Xinjiang, in the far west, the time-zone database records two clocks in daily use: Beijing time for planes, trains and schools, and "Xinjiang time", two hours behind, which many Uyghurs keep and the regional government also uses in its publications.[2] GeoNames lists Xinjiang time too, which is why China is counted here on its official time.[1]

India does the same on a smaller scale: one zone, UTC+5:30, across 29° of longitude.[1][4]

Off the hour

Most of the world's clocks differ from UTC by whole hours. Ten offsets don't: UTC−3:30, UTC+3:30, UTC+4:30, UTC+5:30, UTC+5:45, UTC+6:30, UTC+8:45, UTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 and UTC+12:45.[1] Nepal's UTC+5:45 is the only quarter-hour offset a whole country uses.[1][2]

The other two quarter-hours are local. New Zealand's Chatham Islands keep UTC+12:45, and the roadhouse towns along the Eyre Highway in Western Australia, from the South Australian border to just east of Caiguna, keep UTC+8:45, a local time the time-zone database records around Eucla.[1][2]

#OffsetUsed in
1Flag of CanadaUTC−3:30Canada
2Flag of IranUTC+3:30Iran
3Flag of AfghanistanUTC+4:30Afghanistan
4Flag of IndiaFlag of Sri LankaUTC+5:30India, Sri Lanka
5Flag of NepalUTC+5:45Nepal
6Flag of MyanmarUTC+6:30Myanmar
7Flag of AustraliaUTC+8:45Australia
8Flag of AustraliaUTC+9:30Australia
9Flag of AustraliaUTC+10:30Australia
10Flag of New ZealandUTC+12:45New Zealand

The date line

The earliest clocks of any country are in Kiribati, at UTC+14 in its Line Islands; the latest are in the United States, at UTC−10 in Hawaii.[1][2] They are 24 hours apart: their clocks always show the same time, a day apart.[1]

Both edges have moved. Kiribati's Line Islands were at UTC−10 until the end of 1994, when they jumped to UTC+14, from one side of the date line to the other.[2] Samoa made the same jump in 2011: it went to bed on Thursday 29 December and woke on Saturday the 31st, to make trade with East Asia easier.[5]

Ahead of the sun

At noon on the clock, the sun should be at its highest. It almost never is. Comparing each capital's clock with the sun's time at its longitude, 142 of 197 capitals run ahead of the sun, so sunrise and sunset come later on the clock than they would on sun time.[1][4]

Reykjavik leads, 1 h 28 min ahead.[1][4] Iceland sits far west of Greenwich but keeps UTC+0, and much of West Africa does the same.[1] The capitals running behind the sun are few, and none by much: Sao Tome is the furthest, 0 h 27 min behind.[1][4]

#CapitalClockAhead of the sun
1Flag of IcelandReykjavik, IcelandUTC+01 h 28 min
2Flag of SpainMadrid, SpainUTC+11 h 15 min
3Flag of MalaysiaKuala Lumpur, MalaysiaUTC+81 h 13 min
4Flag of SenegalDakar, SenegalUTC+01 h 10 min
5Flag of BelarusMinsk, BelarusUTC+31 h 10 min
6Flag of LibyaTripoli, LibyaUTC+21 h 07 min
7Flag of TurkmenistanAshgabat, TurkmenistanUTC+51 h 06 min
8Flag of GambiaBanjul, GambiaUTC+01 h 06 min
9Flag of SingaporeSingaporeUTC+81 h 05 min
10Flag of MauritaniaNouakchott, MauritaniaUTC+01 h 04 min
11Flag of Guinea-BissauBissau, Guinea-BissauUTC+01 h 02 min
12Flag of ArmeniaYerevan, ArmeniaUTC+41 h 02 min
Standard time against mean solar time at the capital's longitude. Daylight saving adds an hour in summer where it's kept.

How we counted

Time zones are the distinct standard UTC offsets of the zones GeoNames lists for each country, ignoring daylight saving.[1] Two lists include a time that isn't the country's official one: China's includes Xinjiang time (UTC+6), and Ukraine's includes Crimea's Moscow time (UTC+3). The site counts China on Beijing time and Ukraine on Kyiv time.[1][2]

Sun time at a capital is its longitude divided by 15°, the sun's travel in an hour; widths are from the country's shape on the 1:50m map.[4] For the 17 capitals in countries with more than one zone, we used the zone the capital is in.[2]

Sources

  1. [1]
    countryInfo.txt · GeoNames

    Each country's neighbours, currency, languages and time zones, as the site's games and Globe Atlas use them.

  2. [2]
    Time zone database (the asia, australasia and europe files) · IANA

    The zones and their history, with the maintainers' notes on Xinjiang time and the Eucla time.

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
    Admin 0 – Countries, 1:50m · Natural Earth, via the world-atlas package

    The country shapes the site's maps and games are drawn from; border lengths are measured along them.

  5. [5]
    Samoa to skip Friday, lose December 30th 2011 forever · The Christian Science Monitor · 29 December 2011

More by the numbers

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