World Clock
Finding what you need
Choose a country to see every time zone it holds and the live time in its main cities, or search for a single city to get its own clock, offset, daylight-saving behaviour, and how its day currently lines up with the rest of the world.
The directory behind this page covers 219 countries and territories, all fifty US states plus the District of Columbia, and upwards of 550 individual cities.
UTC, GMT, and the offsets that aren’t whole hours
Local time anywhere is simply UTC with a fixed amount added or subtracted. Coordinated Universal Time is the reference the whole world agrees on, held by a network of atomic clocks and never adjusted for the seasons — London sits at UTC+0 through the winter and UTC+1 through the summer, while Karachi stays at UTC+5 all year round regardless of season.
GMT and UTC describe the same moment for practical purposes, but they are not the same kind of thing: GMT is an actual time zone Britain keeps through the winter, while UTC is the fixed standard every zone is measured against. A call scheduled for 14:00 UTC lands at one identical instant everywhere on the planet.
Several places don’t sit on a whole-hour offset at all. India keeps UTC+5:30, Iran UTC+3:30, large parts of Australia UTC+9:30, and Nepal an unusual UTC+5:45 — chosen specifically so that solar noon falls close to clock noon in Kathmandu.
Why the clocks change, and why not everywhere agrees
Dozens of countries still change their civil clocks seasonally, concentrated mainly in Europe and North America. Many countries never do, and rules can change through legislation, which is why the named time-zone database matters more than memorising a permanent offset.
The switch dates aren’t globally coordinated. The EU moves on the last Sunday of March and October; the US moves on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. For a couple of weeks each year that mismatch shrinks the usual five-hour London–New York gap down to four.
Southern-hemisphere countries that observe it run on the opposite schedule entirely, so Sydney springs forward in October, right as much of Europe is falling back.
Why some countries keep many zones, and others keep just one
Russia alone spans eleven time zones, and the United States keeps six once its territories are included. China takes the opposite approach — geographically wide enough for five zones, it runs the entire country on one single time, so the sun visibly rises in Kashgar roughly three hours later by the clock than it does in Shanghai.
A single national time zone keeps trains, broadcasts, markets and school hours in step with each other; multiple zones keep solar noon closer to clock noon across a wide territory. Different countries weigh that trade-off differently, which is exactly why there’s no universal rule governing it.
The other line worth knowing sits out in the Pacific: the International Date Line. Cross it heading west and a calendar day disappears; heading east, one repeats. It bends deliberately around island groups so neighbouring islands don’t end up split across two different dates — which is how Samoa and American Samoa, only an hour apart by sea, ended up a full calendar day apart.
Questions people ask
How many time zones does the world actually use?
Thirty-eight are in active use once half-hour and quarter-hour offsets are counted in, spread between UTC−12 and UTC+14 — more than the twenty-four you’d get from whole hours alone, precisely because several zones aren’t whole hours at all.
What exactly does UTC mean?
Coordinated Universal Time — the fixed reference every other zone in the world is defined against, kept by a global network of atomic clocks and never adjusted for any country’s seasons.
What does a zone identifier like Asia/Karachi actually mean?
It’s an entry in the IANA time zone database, the reference list every operating system and browser relies on. Each entry stores that zone’s entire rule history, not just today’s offset, which is exactly how software gets past and future dates right.
Why do some places sit on half-hour offsets instead of whole hours?
Because a whole-hour offset would leave noon noticeably far from the actual sun. India runs at UTC+5:30, Iran at UTC+3:30, and parts of Australia at UTC+9:30 for precisely that reason.
Is there really a forty-five-minute time zone?
Yes — Nepal keeps UTC+5:45, and the Chatham Islands run at UTC+12:45. Both offsets were chosen specifically to bring local noon close to the real solar noon.
Why does a country as large as China use just one time zone?
It was unified for administrative simplicity back in 1949. The country spans roughly five zones geographically, which is why the sun rises in Kashgar around three hours later by the clock than it does in Shanghai.
Which country keeps the most time zones?
France, once its overseas territories are counted, spans twelve. For a single contiguous landmass, Russia holds the record at eleven.
What actually is the International Date Line?
A line running roughly along the 180th meridian where the calendar date itself changes. Cross it heading west and you skip a day forward; heading east, you repeat one. It bends around island groups specifically so neighbours don’t end up split across two dates.
Can two neighbouring countries genuinely be a full day apart?
Yes — Samoa and American Samoa sit about an hour apart by boat, yet a full calendar day apart, because Samoa crossed the date line in 2011 and American Samoa didn’t.