Kiribati includes Kiritimati, one of the first inhabited places to enter a new year.
Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, is part of the Line Islands of the Republic of Kiribati. The islands use UTC+14, the world's furthest-ahead civil time zone, so midnight arrives there before it does in most other inhabited locations. This makes Kiritimati a frequent subject of New Year's Eve reports and countdown maps.
Kiribati's position in the global New Year sequence changed in the 1990s. The country moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands so that the entire nation would share the same calendar day. Before that adjustment, different parts of Kiribati could be on different dates.
“First country” can be an imprecise phrase because midnight reaches particular islands and settlements at different moments. Kiritimati is more precisely described as one of the first inhabited places, while Kiribati is the sovereign country that contains it.