Kiribati is widely associated with being among the first countries to enter a new year.
The reason is its position near the International Date Line and the time zones used by its islands. Kiribati’s Line Islands, including Kiritimati, observe UTC+14, the world’s furthest-forward civil time zone. As a result, midnight arrives there before it reaches most other inhabited places.
Kiribati moved the date line for its eastern islands in 1995 so that the country would share the same calendar date across its territory. The change also made the Line Islands prominent in international discussions about which places welcome the new year first.
The statement needs a geographic qualification: Kiribati is spread across a large area of the Pacific, and not all of its islands use the same time zone. It is therefore more precise to refer to the Line Islands, especially Kiritimati, rather than implying that every part of the country enters the new year simultaneously.