Which country spans the most time zones?

France spans the most time zones, counting its overseas territories. The French Republic uses 12 different standard time zones across its territory, or 13 if France’s Antarctic claim is included.

Metropolitan France occupies only one time zone: Central European Time, UTC+1, shifting to UTC+2 during summer time. The larger total comes from France’s scattered overseas lands, including French Polynesia in the Pacific, Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, French Guiana in South America, and New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna in the southwest Pacific.

The common mix-up is Russia, which stretches across 11 time zones and is the country with the most time zones across one continuous mainland. The United States also covers many zones when Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas territories are counted, but its total is lower than France’s. France’s record is therefore a geographic consequence of its global network of overseas departments, collectivities, and territories—not of the width of European France itself.