Kiribati is widely associated with being among the first places to welcome the New Year.
The Republic of Kiribati stretches across a broad area of the central Pacific and uses several time zones. Its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, use UTC+14, the world's most advanced standard time offset. That position means they reach a new calendar date before almost all other inhabited places.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its territory in 1994, bringing its eastern islands onto the same calendar day as its western islands. The change solved practical problems for a country whose communities could otherwise be separated by different dates.
“First” claims can depend on whether the question means the first country, territory, inhabited island, or major city. For that reason, Kiritimati is often named more precisely than Kiribati when discussing the first inhabited places to celebrate New Year's Day.