Kiribati is the first country to enter the New Year among inhabited places.
Kiribati is a Pacific island country whose eastern Line Islands use UTC+14, the world's most advanced standard time zone. Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is the best-known inhabited island in that zone. When midnight arrives there, much of the world is still on December 31.
The result comes from the International Date Line and Kiribati's time-zone arrangement, not from the country's size or its position in a simple east-west ranking. In 1994, Kiribati shifted its eastern islands across the date line so that all of its territory would share the same calendar date. The change created the unusual UTC+14 offset.
Samoa and Tonga are also among the earliest countries to celebrate, but they are not the answer to the UTC+14 distinction. The phrase “first country” can be imprecise if it includes uninhabited territories or depends on local observance; Kiribati is the standard answer for the first inhabited national territory to reach January 1.