Kiribati is among the first countries to welcome the New Year because its Line Islands use UTC+14, the world's most advanced standard time zone.
The Republic of Kiribati is an island country spread across the central Pacific. Its territory includes the Line Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Gilbert Islands. The International Date Line was shifted eastward around Kiribati in 1994 so the country's island groups would share the same calendar date, rather than being divided by a date boundary.
Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, is in the Line Islands and is often cited in countdown reports as one of the first inhabited places to enter a new calendar year. The name Kiritimati is the local spelling of “Christmas,” reflecting the island's history of pronunciation and transliteration.
The claim does not mean every part of Kiribati reaches midnight simultaneously under the same offset: the country spans multiple time zones. The Line Islands' UTC+14 setting is the specific reason they appear so early on global New Year's schedules.