New Year 2026: Which Countries Celebrates New Year's First And Last?

New Year’s Eve is just four days away. As midnight strikes on December 31, people across the globe will welcome 2026 with excitement and joy. However, the world will not celebrate the new year at the same time. Different time zones mean each country rings in the new year at its own time every year.

Which country celebrates the new year first and last?

Although people around the world share the excitement, the New Year does not begin at the same moment everywhere. Different places welcome it at different times because the Earth is divided into 24 main time zones. These boundaries do not run in straight lines; instead, they curve and shift to match national and regional borders. This boundary is known as the International Date Line (IDL), the point where a new calendar day begins and moves from east to west.

Christmas Island, also called Kiritimati Island, lies closest to the IDL. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati and is a remote island with a population of around 1,20,000. Villages named Banana, Paris, Poland and London become the first places on Earth to welcome the New Year.

Kiribati moved the International Date Line to ensure that people in the capital, South Tarawa, and residents of Banana live on the same calendar day rather than being separated by 24 hours.

Soon after, across New Zealand, Australia, and parts of Asia welcome the New Year. The celebration then moves west through Europe and Africa and reaches the Americas a few hours later.

Then, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea celebrate with a mix of modern excitement and age-old cultural rituals.

China, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka also ring in the New Year with joy and festive spirit.

Once these nations embrace the New Year, the celebrations reach the last inhabited place on Earth, American Samoa.

Just 70 kilometres away, on the other side of the International Date Line, Samoa sits 25 hours ahead.

Baker Island and Howland Island, both US territories, become the final places in the world to welcome the New Year. Located southwest of Hawaii, these remote islands greet 2026 an hour later than American Samoa.