When the year ends around the world
New Year is a 26-hour wave. This table gives the moment of midnight on 1 January for major cities, expressed in UTC, using the offsets in force at that time of year.
| City | Offset at New Year | Midnight, in UTC |
|---|---|---|
| Kiritimati (Line Islands) | UTC+14 | 31 Dec, 10:00 |
| Auckland | UTC+13 | 31 Dec, 11:00 |
| Sydney | UTC+11 | 31 Dec, 13:00 |
| Tokyo | UTC+9 | 31 Dec, 15:00 |
| Beijing, Singapore | UTC+8 | 31 Dec, 16:00 |
| New Delhi, Kolkata | UTC+5:30 | 31 Dec, 18:30 |
| Dubai | UTC+4 | 31 Dec, 20:00 |
| Moscow | UTC+3 | 31 Dec, 21:00 |
| Berlin, Paris | UTC+1 | 31 Dec, 23:00 |
| London | UTC | 1 Jan, 00:00 |
| São Paulo | UTC−3 | 1 Jan, 03:00 |
| New York | UTC−5 | 1 Jan, 05:00 |
| Mexico City | UTC−6 | 1 Jan, 06:00 |
| Los Angeles | UTC−8 | 1 Jan, 08:00 |
| Honolulu | UTC−10 | 1 Jan, 10:00 |
| Pago Pago (American Samoa) | UTC−11 | 1 Jan, 11:00 |
Offsets are those in force on 31 December under current rules: standard time in the Northern Hemisphere, summer time in the Southern (Sydney at UTC+11, Auckland at UTC+13). Governments do change their rules; the board always uses the current definition of the zone you pick.
Reading the table
To find when a city's New Year happens in your own zone, take its midnight in UTC and add your offset. Sydney's midnight is 13:00 UTC on 31 December, which is 18:30 in India (UTC+5:30), 14:00 in Berlin (UTC+1) and 08:00 in New York (UTC−5) — so in New York you can watch Sydney's fireworks at breakfast on 31 December and your own at midnight.
First and last
The wave starts in Kiribati's Line Islands at 10:00 UTC on 31 December and ends on the uninhabited Baker and Howland Islands (UTC−12) at 12:00 UTC on 1 January; the last inhabited midnight is American Samoa's at 11:00 UTC. The reasons the line falls where it does are in where New Year arrives first and last.
Watching it on the board
Select any of these zones on the board and it counts down to that city's midnight; when it arrives, the board shows the New Year moment for that zone and then starts counting the year ahead. On 31 December you can step through the table from top to bottom as each city crosses.
Sources
- Time zone — Wikipedia (offset range UTC−12 to UTC+14)
- International Date Line — Wikipedia (Line Islands first, Baker and Howland last, American Samoa)
- Offsets and midnight instants computed with the IANA time-zone database via the JavaScript Intl API on 18 September 2026