Kiribati includes Kiritimati among the first inhabited places to welcome the New Year.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, lies in the central Pacific and uses UTC+14, the world's most advanced civil time zone. As a result, its local midnight arrives before midnight in almost every other inhabited location. News reports often describe Kiritimati and other Kiribati islands as being among the first places to enter a new calendar year.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands in 1995 so that the country would share the same calendar date across its territory. Before that change, the islands could be separated by a calendar day even though they belonged to one nation.
The country consists of three island groups: the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands. Kiritimati is in the Line Islands and is much larger in land area than most coral atolls, though its population remains relatively small.