With so many wrong answers, I must address this question. It’s a topic that is often misunderstood.
The real answer
At every given time throughout the year, there are exactly 35 official times across the globe. This is true despite the fact that there are 38 times zones. Obviously, since we live on a roughly spherical object with 360° of longitude, there are 24 different times that are spaced out by precisely an hour. That leaves 11 other time zones with offsets of less than 60 minutes from neighboring zones.
A brief explanation
Currently, as I answer this question in the month of November, it is 3:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on a Wednesday in London. That’s UTC-0:00, or 0 hours of difference from Universal Coordinated Time. Meanwhile, uninhabited Baker and Howland islands are on International Date Line West time (UTC-12), hence 12 hours earlier than London. Thus, the time there is 3:00 p.m. on a Tuesday.
(Uninhabited Baker Island)
Meanwhile, Fiji observes Fiji Standard Time (UTC+12) and is thus 12 hours ahead of London. Hence, the time there is 3:00 p.m. on a Wednesday. But because it’s 3:00 p.m. in both Fiji and on Baker and Howland islands, these two time zones only represent one clock time (despite existing on two different days). This happens because 12 hours + 12 hours makes 24 hours. And two time zones 24 hours apart are going to be observing the same time of day. While these two locations are over a thousand miles apart, time is not correlated to distance but rather longitudinal position (loosely). And it seems odd that Fiji only lies 124 miles west of Baker Island longitudinally (? km) while their clocks are 24 hours apart. Of course, that’s the effect of straddling the International Date Line.
The same is true with American Samoa (UTC-11) and the country of Samoa (UTC+13), both currently observing 4:00 p.m. as I write this (but on different days). This is because 13 hours + 11 hours is also 24 hours. That’s my best attempt to make a tricky concept relatively easy. And that’s despite the two Samoas lying only 41 miles from each other as the crow flies (? km) in the same region of the South Pacific! Take a boat between the two and you’ll feel like you’ve time traveled either to yesterday or tomorrow!
So, eliminating multiple time zones that observe the same time (but on different days), we find that there are only 35 possible times on earth at every moment.
Daylight Saving Time
One must also consider Daylight Saving Time (DST), a practice observed in 53 countries as of 2025 (in at least part of each of those countries if not the entirety). DST is also observed in the two UN observer states of Vatican City and Palestine. And Morocco additionally alters its time during Ramadan. Thankfully, this doesn’t complicate matters too much and the 35 times are not altered in number.
For the most part, when DST shifts the time in several countries ahead or behind, at least one other location in the world remains on that time and no potential times are lost. For instance, on the second Sunday of each March at 2:00 a.m., the time in mainland Alaska jumps ahead to 3:00 a.m. as Daylight Saving Time begins. That leaves the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia as the only place in the world observing 2:00 a.m. at that moment, being UTC-9:00 (Universal Coordinated Time) all by itself. And that lasts for … exactly 60 minutes out of the entire year. One hour later, Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands move forward an hour and join the Gambier Islands with the same clock time. In fact, only the Gambier Islands and Africa’s Cape Verde have their own time for an hour each year without the benefit of a time shift of less than 60 minutes (those unusual time zones with 30-minute and 45-minute shifts from UTC).
But the point remains that this particular time in the Gambier Islands, UTC-9:00 or 9 hours earlier than the time in London when it’s on standard time, is never completely vacated. Some place in the world occupies each time offset year-round, keeping that number at 35.
(The Gambier Islands)
The two exceptions
Only two UTC time offsets exist for part of the year but not the entire year. If UTC is precisely 0:00, the Chatham Islands of New Zealand serve as the world’s only location to experience 12:45 p.m., doing so between early April and late September. No place observes that time for the rest of the year. But as New Zealand advances one hour ahead in September as their DST begins, they jump to a different time that was never occupied by any location either. They do not overlap another nation’s time which prevents the loss of one of the world’s 35 different times.
(The Chatham Islands)
Likewise, at UTC 0:00, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is the only place experiencing 8:30 p.m., lasting from early November to early March. When Canada and the U.S. advance an hour in March, Newfoundland and Labrador now observes 9:30 p.m. at UTC 0:00. Like the Chatham Islands, this does not overlap any other nation’s time, keeping the 35 different times intact.
(Newfoundland)
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