World Clock
How to use this page
Pick a country to see every time zone it keeps and the current time in its main cities; pick a city for its own clock, its offset, its daylight saving rules and how it lines up with the rest of the world.
The list covers 219 countries and territories, all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, and more than 550 cities.
UTC, GMT and offsets
Every local time is UTC plus or minus a fixed amount. Coordinated Universal Time is the reference the world agrees on; it is kept by atomic clocks and does not change with the seasons. London in January is UTC+0. London in July is UTC+1. Karachi is UTC+5 all year.
GMT and UTC point at the same moment for everyday purposes. The difference is what they are: GMT is a time zone, still used by the UK in winter, while UTC is a time standard that zones are defined against. If someone says a call is at 14:00 UTC, that is one instant everywhere on Earth.
Not every offset is a whole number of hours. India runs at UTC+5:30, Iran at UTC+3:30, parts of Australia at UTC+9:30, and Nepal at UTC+5:45 — a forty-five minute offset chosen so that noon sits close to the sun over Kathmandu.
Daylight saving time
Around seventy countries and territories still move their clocks forward in spring and back in autumn — fewer than a third of the world. They are concentrated in Europe and North America. Almost none are near the equator, where day length barely changes across the year and shifting the clock would buy nothing.
The dates are not universal. The EU changes on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October; the United States on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. That mismatch is why the gap between London and New York is four hours for about three weeks each spring instead of the usual five — long enough to wreck a recurring call that was set up by hand rather than by calendar.
Southern hemisphere countries that use it run the opposite way, so Sydney springs forward in October while Europe falls back. And within countries there are holes: Arizona and Hawaii sit out the US change, Queensland and Western Australia sit out the Australian one, and Saskatchewan sits out the Canadian one.
Who has stopped changing their clocks
The long-run direction is one way: countries stop, and almost none start. Russia stopped changing its clocks in 2014 and Turkey in 2016, both settling on permanent summer time. Brazil abolished the switch in 2019. Mexico dropped it in 2022 for everywhere except a strip of border municipalities that follow US dates, and Iran, Jordan and Syria stopped in the same period. Paraguay went permanently to summer time in 2024. No country has newly adopted daylight saving in more than a decade.
The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end the mandatory twice-yearly change, but member states never agreed on which time to keep, and the clocks still move on the same dates as before. The United States is the live case: on 14 July 2026 the House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act by 308 votes to 117, which would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide unless a state opted out. It is with the Senate, where an earlier version stalled, and nothing has changed yet — American clocks still go forward in March and back in November.
This site does not guess at any of it. Offsets and change dates come from the IANA time zone database, which is updated when a government actually publishes a change, so a city page reflects the law as it stands rather than as it was proposed.
Why some countries have many time zones and others have one
Russia spans eleven zones. The United States keeps six across its states — Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian — and nine in total once Atlantic, Samoa and Chamorro time in the territories are counted. China spans a geographic width of five but runs the whole country on a single time, so the sun rises in Kashgar around three hours later by the clock than in Shanghai. India does the same across a narrower span.
One time zone makes national life simpler: trains, broadcasts, markets and school hours all agree. Several zones keep noon near the middle of the day. Countries weigh those against each other differently, which is why there is no rule about it.
The other line worth knowing is the International Date Line in the Pacific. Cross it westward and you lose a day; eastward and you repeat one. It bends around island groups so that neighbouring islands are not split between dates — which is how Samoa and American Samoa, an hour apart by sea, sit a day apart on the calendar.
Questions people ask
How many time zones are there in the world?
Thirty-eight are in current use once half-hour and quarter-hour offsets are counted, spread between UTC−12 and UTC+14. That is more than twenty-four because several are not whole hours.
What exactly is UTC?
Coordinated Universal Time — the reference that every other zone is defined against. It is kept by a worldwide network of atomic clocks and does not change with the seasons.
Is UTC the same as GMT?
For everyday purposes they point at the same moment, but they are different kinds of thing. GMT is a time zone that the UK still uses in winter. UTC is a time standard that zones are measured from.
What does an identifier like Asia/Karachi mean?
It is an entry in the IANA time zone database, the list operating systems and browsers rely on. Each entry stores the whole history of that zone’s rules, not just today’s offset, which is how software gets past dates right.
Why do some places use half-hour offsets?
Because a whole-hour offset would put noon noticeably away from the sun. India uses UTC+5:30, Iran UTC+3:30 and parts of Australia UTC+9:30 for that reason.
Is there a forty-five minute time zone?
Yes. Nepal keeps UTC+5:45, and the Chatham Islands run at UTC+12:45. Both were chosen to place local noon close to the actual solar noon.
Why does China use only one time zone?
It was unified in 1949 for administrative simplicity. The country spans about five zones geographically, so the sun rises in Kashgar roughly three hours later by the clock than in Shanghai.
Which country has the most time zones?
France, counting its overseas territories, spans twelve. For contiguous land, Russia has eleven.
What is the International Date Line?
A line running roughly along the 180th meridian where the calendar date changes. Cross it westward and you skip a day; eastward and you repeat one. It bends around island groups so that neighbours share a date.
Can two neighbouring countries be a day apart?
Yes. Samoa and American Samoa are about an hour apart by boat and a full calendar day apart, because Samoa moved across the date line in 2011.
Do time zones ever change?
Regularly. Countries adopt or abandon daylight saving, shift their offset or redraw internal boundaries. The IANA database is updated several times a year to keep up.
Why is my computer showing the wrong zone abbreviation?
Abbreviations are not standardised — several letters combinations are used for more than one zone. The UTC offset shown next to it is the reliable part.
What is the difference between standard time and daylight time?
Standard time is the zone’s baseline. Daylight time is that baseline plus an hour, used through the lighter half of the year in the countries that observe it.
Where to go next
Bookmark or share World Clock directly. Everything else is one step away on local time in every country.
- Time zone converter — turn a time in one place into the same instant in another
- Time difference calculator — two cities side by side, hour by hour, for a whole day
- Time zone map — every offset from UTC−12 to UTC+14 and who keeps it
- Meeting planner — find an hour that suits everyone on a call
- current time around the world — the current time in every country, territory and US state