Kiribati became the first inhabited nation to enter the year 2000 after its time zones were shifted east of the International Date Line.
Kiribati is an island country spread across a huge area of the central Pacific. In 1995, it moved the date-line boundary around its eastern islands so that the country would share the same calendar date. Before that change, its islands could be separated by different calendar days despite belonging to one country. The adjustment placed the Line Islands, including Kiritimati, among the earliest places on Earth to reach a new date.
The phrase “first inhabited place” is often simplified in media coverage, and the exact order depends on which islands and time-zone definitions are being compared. Kiribati is the country most closely associated with welcoming the year 2000 first, while Tonga and parts of New Zealand also enter New Year early. Samoa is a separate case: it skipped December 30, 2011, when it moved across the date line.