Kiribati includes the Line Islands, among the world's first inhabited places to enter a new calendar year.
Kiribati is an island country spread across the central Pacific. Its eastern Line Islands use UTC+14, the world's most advanced standard civil time zone, so they reach midnight before almost every other inhabited location.
The arrangement became especially important after Kiribati shifted the International Date Line around its eastern islands in 1995. Before that change, different parts of the country could be on different calendar days, making administration and communication difficult.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is the best-known inhabited island in the group. “First country to celebrate” is a common shorthand, but the precise claim depends on whether one means the first inhabited territory, the first city, or the first place to stage a public event.