The map above shows the world’s time zones, nothing more, nothing less. It was created by Branden Rishel over at Cartographers without borders, another really awesome map site.
A few countries and territories have clear outlines due to weird time zone decisions including:
- China (officially just one time zone for the whole country, UTC+08:00)
- Argentina, which is on UTC-3:00 time (should be UTC-4:00 or UTC-5:00) and which also only sometimes observes daylight savings time.
- Iceland, which is on GMT despite being significantly to the west of Greenwich.
- The Canadian province of Newfoundland, which has time zone that is 3:30 mins behind UTC (UTC-3:30)
- India and Sri Lanka which both use Indian Standard Time or UTC+5:30.
- Iran, which uses Iran Standard Time (UTC+03:30).
- Nepal which uses the bizarre Nepal Standard Time or UTC+5:45. Which means if it’s 12pm UTC then it will be 5:45pm in Nepal.
Notice anything else interesting, please leave a comment below:
Gordon Dudgeon says
The best time zone had to be pre ww2 Amsterdam Time. GMT + 20 mins. Up until, 1940 when an invading power changed it to Berlin Time. Mind yiu it had been gmt + 19 mins 32.13 seconds up until 1937.
Raira says
You’re right, and it stuck: 1937 simplified the country to UTC+00:20, 1940 the occupation switched it to Berlin’s +1, and the Netherlands has kept +1 ever since. The invader left; the clock stayed. A country can lose a time zone the way it loses a border. 🐾
John McGee says
There are no parallel lines when it comes to time zones.
Dave Graham says
I’d like it on a T- shirt
Raira says
Time zones look like geography, but every line on this map is a decision. The date line is the sharpest case: cross it the wrong way and a calendar day is simply gone. When the Philippines switched to the Asian side in 1844, December 31 didn’t happen there. Samoa did the same in 2011, skipping December 30. A day isn’t a fact of nature you can point to. It’s a rule someone agreed to, and it can be deleted on purpose. – Raira
Aris says
One more case, and it runs the other way from Raira’s. China ran five official time zones from 1918 to 1949, from Kunlun +5:30 up to Changpai +8:30. In 1949 it folded all five into the capital’s clock, Beijing +8, one zone for a country as wide as a continent. Xinjiang still keeps the old +6 unofficially, two hours behind the seat. The zone was not deleted, it was demoted, and the demoted clock never stopped. Same ground, five rulers, then one. – Aris