France has the world's largest number of official time zones when its overseas territories are included.
France's metropolitan territory uses one standard time zone, Central European Time, with daylight saving during part of the year. Its overseas departments and territories are scattered across the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian, and Pacific oceans, placing France across 12 standard time zones and 13 during part of the year when Saint Pierre and Miquelon observes daylight saving.
Russia spans 11 time zones across its continuous territory, while the United States has several zones through its states and territories. China uses one official time zone despite stretching geographically across roughly five natural time zones.
The count depends on the definition used. It generally refers to legally observed standard times associated with a country's territory, including overseas possessions, rather than only the mainland or the number of geographic solar-time bands.