The complete list of all 24 time zones (with examples)
There are technically more than 24 time zones in the world. The "24 zones" rule of thumb is a simplification — when you count fractional offsets (UTC+5:30, UTC+5:45, etc.) and zones that observe DST seasonally, the real number is closer to 38.
Here's the full list, organized west-to-east by UTC offset. For converting between any two zones, the time converter does the math.
The complete list
| Offset | Example cities | Common abbreviation | DST? |
|--------|---------------|---------------------|------|
| UTC-12:00 | Baker Island, Howland Island | AoE (uninhabited) | No |
| UTC-11:00 | American Samoa, Niue | SST | No |
| UTC-10:00 | Hawaii, Tahiti | HST | No |
| UTC-09:30 | Marquesas Islands | MART | No |
| UTC-09:00 | Anchorage, Alaska | AKST/AKDT | Yes (US states) |
| UTC-08:00 | Los Angeles, Vancouver, Tijuana | PST/PDT | Yes |
| UTC-07:00 | Denver, Phoenix, Edmonton | MST/MDT | Mostly |
| UTC-06:00 | Chicago, Mexico City, Winnipeg | CST/CDT | Mostly |
| UTC-05:00 | New York, Toronto, Lima, Bogotá | EST/EDT | Mostly |
| UTC-04:00 | Halifax, Caracas, Santiago, Manaus | AST | Mostly |
| UTC-03:30 | Newfoundland | NST/NDT | Yes |
| UTC-03:00 | São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Greenland | BRT, ART | Mostly no (Brazil dropped DST) |
| UTC-02:00 | South Georgia | GST | No |
| UTC-01:00 | Cape Verde, Azores | CVT, AZOT | Azores yes |
| UTC+00:00 | London, Lisbon, Reykjavik, Accra | GMT/UTC | UK yes; Iceland/Ghana no |
| UTC+01:00 | Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Lagos | CET/CEST | EU yes |
| UTC+02:00 | Cairo, Athens, Helsinki, Cape Town | EET, SAST | EU yes; SA no |
| UTC+03:00 | Moscow, Istanbul, Riyadh, Nairobi | MSK, AST | Russia/Saudi no |
| UTC+03:30 | Tehran | IRST | Used to; abolished 2022 |
| UTC+04:00 | Dubai, Baku, Tbilisi | GST | No |
| UTC+04:30 | Kabul | AFT | No |
| UTC+05:00 | Karachi, Tashkent | PKT | No |
| UTC+05:30 | Mumbai, Delhi, Colombo | IST | No |
| UTC+05:45 | Kathmandu | NPT | No |
| UTC+06:00 | Dhaka, Almaty | BST/BDT | No |
| UTC+06:30 | Yangon | MMT | No |
| UTC+07:00 | Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi | ICT, WIB | No |
| UTC+08:00 | Beijing, Singapore, Manila, Perth | CST, SGT, PHT, AWST | No |
| UTC+08:45 | Eucla (Western Australia) | (informal) | No |
| UTC+09:00 | Tokyo, Seoul, Pyongyang | JST, KST | No |
| UTC+09:30 | Adelaide, Darwin | ACST/ACDT | Adelaide yes; Darwin no |
| UTC+10:00 | Sydney, Brisbane, Vladivostok | AEST/AEDT | NSW yes; QLD no |
| UTC+10:30 | Lord Howe Island | LHST/LHDT | Yes (30-min DST) |
| UTC+11:00 | Solomon Islands, Magadan | SBT, MAGT | No |
| UTC+12:00 | Auckland, Wellington, Fiji | NZST/NZDT | NZ yes; Fiji yes |
| UTC+12:45 | Chatham Islands | CHAST/CHADT | Yes |
| UTC+13:00 | Tonga, Samoa | TOT, WST | No |
| UTC+14:00 | Kiribati, Line Islands | LINT | No |
How to read this list
West side (UTC-12 to UTC-01): the Americas and Pacific. New York and Toronto share UTC-5; western Canada shares UTC-8 with California. Brazil is mostly UTC-3 with no DST anymore.
Center (UTC+00 to UTC+04): Europe, Africa, the Middle East. The EU mostly observes DST in unison. Africa mostly doesn't. Russia abolished DST in 2011.
East side (UTC+05 to UTC+14): Asia, Australia, Pacific. China and India each have one zone for their entire country. Australia has multiple zones with mixed DST observance.
"All time zones" is a moving target
The list above is current as of mid-2026 but every year a few entries shift. Recent changes worth knowing:
- Mexico abolished DST in most states in 2022 (border states still observe to align with the US)
- Egypt added DST in 2023, abolished it again in 2024
- Iran abolished DST in 2022
- Mexico City is now UTC-6 year-round (no DST)
- Russia moved Volgograd from UTC+4 back to UTC+3 in 2020
The IANA tz database tracks these changes. Your phone updates them via OS updates.
The widest gap — UTC-12 to UTC+14
The total span between the westernmost zone (Baker Island, UTC-12) and the easternmost (Kiribati's Line Islands, UTC+14) is 26 hours. Yes, more than 24. The reason is that Kiribati moved from UTC-11 to UTC+13 in 1995 to bring all its islands onto one calendar — meaning their UTC+14 is technically the same wall-clock as a UTC-10 location, but on a different date.
What each abbreviation means
Most "common abbreviations" you'll see in scheduling software follow patterns:
- Three-letter codes (EST, PST, IST, JST) are widely used but ambiguous. "IST" can mean Indian Standard Time, Irish Standard Time, OR Israel Standard Time depending on context.
- Codes ending in "DT" are daylight time variants (EDT = Eastern Daylight Time = UTC-4, only in summer).
- Codes ending in "ST" are usually standard time (EST = Eastern Standard Time = UTC-5, only in winter).
- For unambiguous reference, use IANA names like `America/New_York` instead of EST/EDT.
FAQ
Why isn't there a UTC-13 or UTC+15?
Because there are no inhabited landmasses that would benefit from that offset. The line of UTC-12 passes through the central Pacific, mostly ocean. UTC+14 (Line Islands) is the easternmost inhabited zone.
Are all 24 hourly offsets actually used?
Yes — every whole-hour offset from UTC-12 to UTC+12 is in use somewhere. UTC+13 and UTC+14 also have populations. UTC-11 has American Samoa.
What about historical time zones?
Many. The IANA database tracks zones that no longer exist (e.g., `Asia/Calcutta` for the old Indian time before unification, `Africa/Asmera` for an obsolete Ethiopian zone). They're kept for backward compatibility with old timestamps.
How do I figure out which zone applies to my GPS coordinates?
Most APIs (Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) include a time-zone lookup that returns an IANA zone for any lat/long. The time converter and world clock accept a city name and resolve to the correct IANA zone automatically.
Why are some zones split across multiple countries?
Because zone borders follow political/geographic logic, not strict longitude. Central European Time (UTC+1) covers most of Western Europe — France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. — because they coordinated. Africa's WAT (UTC+1) covers a different group of West African countries that share the same offset by coincidence.
Bottom line
The world has 38+ active time zones if you count fractional offsets and DST variants — not the convenient 24 of common simplification. Some zones span entire continents (China's UTC+8); some cover a single island (Lord Howe at UTC+10:30/+11). The IANA database catalogs them all and your phone uses it to keep the right time wherever you go.
For specific conversions or current times, the world clock and time converter are the fastest tools.