France officially recognizes the greatest number of time zones, with 12 standard time zones because of its overseas territories. During part of the year, its total can be counted as 13 when Saint Pierre and Miquelon observes daylight saving time.
Metropolitan France uses Central European Time in winter and Central European Summer Time in summer. Its overseas territories span the Atlantic, Caribbean, South America, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and Antarctic regions, creating the unusually wide time-zone spread.
Russia is often remembered for having the most time zones within one continuous mainland, with 11. The United States also spans many zones when its states and territories are included, but its official total is lower than France’s.
China provides the opposite example: despite its enormous east-to-west width, the entire country officially uses one time zone, China Standard Time, based on UTC+8.