US EditionWhich Countries Celebrate the New Year First and Last?
Kiritimati Island in Kiribati is the first inhabited place to enter 2026 due to its position near the International Date Line, with last celebrations in eastern Pacific islands.
- On Dec. 31, Kiritimati Island, one of the 33 islands that make up the Republic of Kiribati, became the first inhabited land mass to usher in 2026.
- Kiribati's 1995 date-line change shifted some islands from being last to being among the first, as the international date line has no legal status and countries can choose their observed dates.
- Baker Island is last to strike midnight, with American Samoa joining at 11:00 GMT , making Baker Island the final place to welcome 2026.
- Celebrations then sweep westward through Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, featuring major spectacles at Burj Khalifa, Dubai; Times Square, New York; Rio de Janeiro; and Auckland's Sky Tower.
- It takes roughly 25 to 26 hours for the global day to complete, complicated by as many as 38 local times including 30- and 45-minute offsets from UTC.
20 Articles
20 Articles
While millions of people around the world prepare to say goodbye to 2025, the arrival of the New Year 2026 doesn't happen simultaneously everywhere. The celebration begins at a specific point in the Pacific Ocean and travels around the globe for approximately 26 hours before reaching its end.
Kiribati, New Zealand, Australia: Which countries are the first to ring in 2026?
It is 2026 in some countries already. Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, has become the first place in the world to welcome the New Year. New Zealand’s Auckland and Australia's Sydney have also started the celebrations. Here is when other countries will join in
At 7 a.m. in Brazil (British Time) the island of Kiritimati, the largest archipelago formed by Kiribati, became the first place in the world to celebrate the arrival of 2026. After that, other locals followed the same steps, being countries of Asia and Oceania. China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia have already celebrated 2026 and in many of these places the celebration has been accompanied by artificial fires. The worl…
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