Kiribati spans three time zones, making it the only country in the world to permanently span three different UTC offsets. The Gilbert Islands (including the capital Tarawa) use UTC+12, the Phoenix Islands use UTC+13, and the Line Islands use UTC+14. Kiribati does not observe daylight saving time.
In 1995, Kiribati moved the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands to UTC+14 and UTC+13 respectively, ensuring the entire nation shared the same calendar date. This made the Line Islands the first place on Earth to enter each new day, including being the first to welcome the new millennium on January 1, 2000.
Kiribati consists of 33 atolls and reef islands spread across 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean, an area larger than India. Despite this vast spread, the total land area is only about 811 square kilometers. The country's name is the Gilbertese pronunciation of "Gilberts," derived from the British name for the islands.