Time zone

Time zones are areas of the Earth that follow the same definition of time. Formerly, people were using apparent solar time, resulting in the time differing slightly from town to town. Time zones partially rectified the problem by setting the clocks of a region to the same mean solar time. Time zones are generally centered on meridians of a longitude that is a multiple of 15º; however as the map below shows, the shapes of time zones can be quite irregular because of boundaries of countries.

All time zones are defined relative to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time zone containing London.

List of time zones and contained areas

Countries with * observe Daylight Saving Time: add 1 in summer.

UTC-11

UTC-10 (HST - Hawaiian Standard Time)

French Polynesia (Society Archipelago[?] including Tahiti, Tuamotu Archipelago[?], Tubuai Islands[?])
Johnston Atoll
United States (Hawaii)

UTC-9:30

French Polynesia (Marquesas Islands)

UTC-9 (AKST - Alaska Standard Time)

UTC-4 (AST - Atlantic Standard Time)

UTC-3:30

Canada (Newfoundland*)

UTC-3

Argentina
Bahamas*
Brazil (Alagoas, Amapa, Bahia*, Ceara, Distrito Federal*, Espirto Santo[?]*, Goias*, Maranhao, Minas Gerais*, Para (eastern)[?], Paraiba, Parana[?]*, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio de Janeiro*, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul*, Santa Catarina*, Sao Paulo*, Sergipe, Tocantins[?]*)
French Guiana*
Greenland
Saint Pierre and Miquelon*
Suriname
Uruguay

UTC-2

UTC-1

Cape Verde
Portugal (Azores*)

UTC (WET - Western European Time, also called GMT)

UTC+1 (CET - Central European Time, also called MET - Middle European Time)

UTC+2 (EET - Eastern European Time)

Belarus*
Botswana
Bulgaria*
Burundi
Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Kasai Occidental[?], Kasai Oriental[?], Haut-Zaire[?], Shaba[?])
Cyprus*
Egypt*
Estonia
Finland*
Gaza Strip*
Greece*
Israel*
Jordan
Latvia*
Lebanon*
Lesotho
Libya
Lithuania
Malawi
Moldova*
Mozambique
Romania*
Russia (Zone 1*, including Kalingrad[?])
Rwanda
South Africa
Swaziland
Syria*
Turkey*
Ukraine*
West Bank*
Zambia
Zimbabwe

UTC+3

Bahrain
Comoros
Djibouti
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Iraq*
Kenya
Kuwait
Madagascar
Mayotte
Qatar
Russia (Zone 2*, including Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
Yemen

UTC+3:30

Iran*

UTC+4

UTC+4:30

Afghanistan

UTC+5

Armenia
Azerbaijan*
Kazakhstan (Central)*
Kyrgyzstan*
Maldives
Pakistan
Russia (Zone 4*, including Ekaterinburg and Perm[?])
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

UTC+5:30

India

UTC+5:45

Nepal

UTC+6

Bangladesh
Bhutan
Kazakhstan (Eastern)*
Russia (Zone 5*, including Novosibirsk and Omsk)
Sri Lanka

UTC+6:30

UTC+7

UTC+8 (AWST - Australian Western Standard Time)

Note that the whole of China has the same time, which makes this time zone exceptionally wide. In the extreme west of China the sun is at its highest at 3 pm, in the extreme east at 11 am.