Samoa officially changed its time zone from UTC−11 to UTC+13 in 2011. The switch moved Samoa to the western side of the International Date Line and placed it closer in calendar time to major trading partners such as New Zealand and Australia.
The change took effect after Thursday, December 29, 2011. Samoa then skipped Friday, December 30, jumping directly to Saturday, December 31. Although the clock change was 24 hours in practical effect, the country’s standard-time offset changed by 24 hours, from UTC−11 to UTC+13.
Samoa’s decision is often confused with nearby Tonga, Tokelau, or Kiribati, which also lie near the International Date Line and observe advanced Pacific time zones. American Samoa is a separate territory and retained UTC−11, so the two Samoas are now almost a full day apart despite their geographic proximity. Samoa later used daylight saving time seasonally, but that practice was discontinued in 2021.