25 things that are true about time on Earth

Every number on these 25 pages is worked out when you load it, from the IANA time zone database and a catalogue of 6,338 cities. Each page states its method beside its result, and each one says what its data can and cannot tell you. 13 of them change with the date and say so.

Daylight

Longest run of midnight sun, 2026 128 days Cities with the most days of midnight sun Longyearbyen goes 128 days without a sunset. Longest polar night, 2026 111 days Cities with the longest polar night Longyearbyen goes 111 days without a sunrise, and Rovaniemi gets none at all. Longest daylight anywhere today 12h 22m The longest day on Earth today Today's longest day is 12h 22m, in Punta Arenas. Changes daily Shortest daylight anywhere today 11h 54m The shortest day on Earth today Today's shortest day is 11h 54m, in Utqiagvik. Changes daily Longest June solstice day that still ends 22h 03m Daylight on the June solstice Oulu gets 22h 03m of daylight on the June solstice and still has a sunset. Longest December solstice day 16h 58m Daylight on the December solstice Punta Arenas gets 16h 58m of daylight on the December solstice. Largest annual swing in daylight 18h 29m Cities with the biggest annual daylight swing Oulu's day length swings 18h 29m between the solstices.

Time zones

Most time zones in one country 29 zones Countries keeping the most time zones United States keeps 29 separate time zones. Widest internal clock gap 10 hours The widest clock gap inside one country Russia spans 10 hours of clock time internally. Changes daily Zones 45 minutes off the hour 3 of 419 The time zones that are 45 minutes off the hour Exactly 3 of the world's 419 time zones are 45 minutes off the hour. Changes daily Cities on a half-hour offset 703 The time zones half an hour off the hour 703 of our cities keep a clock that is half an hour off the hour. Changes daily Offsets with a single zone on them 9 of 37 UTC offsets kept by exactly one zone 9 UTC offsets are kept by exactly one time zone each. Changes daily

Clocks and the Sun

Latest solar noon on Earth today 14:53 Cities whose clock runs furthest behind the Sun In Nome the Sun is highest at 14:53 on the clock. Changes daily Earliest solar noon on Earth today 11:00 Cities whose clock runs furthest ahead of the Sun In Tinsukia the Sun peaks at 11:00, an hour before clock noon. Changes daily Earliest sunrise by the clock today 04:58 The earliest sunrise on Earth today The Sun comes up at 04:58 in Tinsukia today. Changes daily Latest sunrise by the clock today 08:54 The latest sunrise on Earth today The Sun does not come up until 08:54 in Nome today. Changes daily

Geography

Northernmost city in the catalogue 78.22°N The northernmost cities we publish Longyearbyen at 78.22 degrees north is the furthest north we publish. Southernmost city in the catalogue 53.16°S The southernmost cities we publish Only 1 of our 6338 cities lie below 50 degrees south. Furthest from any other city 2,108 km The most isolated cities in the catalogue Suva is 2,108 km from the nearest other city we publish. Sharpest clock border 4 km, 90 min The sharpest time zone borders on Earth Mengmao and Mu-se are 4 km apart and 1 hour 30 minutes apart on the clock. Changes daily Closest pair 20 hours apart 2,384 km The places furthest apart in time Nome and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: 2,384 km apart, 20 hours apart on the clock. Changes daily Closest antipodal pair 1 km Cities that are almost exact antipodes Esmeraldas and Padang are antipodes to within 1 km.

Daylight saving

Countries that never change clocks 172 of 243 The places that never change their clocks 172 of 243 countries never change their clocks at all. Smallest daylight saving shift on Earth 30 minutes The biggest and smallest daylight saving shifts 2 of the world's 131 clock-changing zones move by something other than an hour. Next clock change anywhere 1 days The next clock change anywhere in the world The next clock change on Earth is in 1 day, in Antarctica/McMurdo. Changes daily

How all of this is computed

Four sources, no stored answers

Time zone offsets and daylight saving transitions come from the IANA time zone database, read through Node's own internationalisation data, which is the same source your operating system uses. Sunrise, sunset and solar noon are solved with the NOAA formulation from each place's coordinates. Country and zone lists come from the ICU region tables, written out as literals so a different build cannot change them silently. City coordinates, populations and zones come from the GeoNames cities15000 gazetteer.

Nothing on any of these pages is stored, cached across days or written by hand. A ranking that depends on today's date is recomputed on every request and names the instant it was computed at, because a page that says "the longest day on Earth" without saying when is making a claim it cannot support tomorrow.

The city catalogue covers every settlement GeoNames records above 100,000 residents, plus 448 smaller places this site has published since it launched: 6,338 in total. That is not every settlement on Earth, and it matters most at the extremes, where the interesting places are often small. Each page says where that limit bites on its own ranking rather than leaving you to guess.

Quoting these numbers

These pages exist to be cited, so the practical details are worth stating. Every figure is reproducible: the method on each page is complete enough to redo the calculation yourself from public data, and where a result depends on a convention, such as the horizon used for sunrise or the date used for a solstice, the page names the convention rather than burying it.

If you quote a number that changes with the date, quote the date with it. The pages marked "changes daily" above will give a different answer tomorrow, which is a property of the fact and not a defect of the page.

World time zone map Time by country Time by city Sunrise and sunset Timezone converter All time zones

Questions

Where do these numbers come from?: The IANA time zone database for offsets and clock changes, the NOAA solar formulation for sunrise and sunset, the ICU region tables for country and zone lists, and the GeoNames gazetteer for city coordinates. Every page names which of those it used.
Are the rankings updated?: They are computed at the moment you load them. 13 of the 25 depend on the date and will read differently tomorrow; the rest depend only on geography or on the zone database and change only when the underlying data does.
How many cities are included?: 6,338: every settlement GeoNames lists above 100,000 residents, plus 448 smaller places this site has always published. Rankings drawn from the zone database rather than the city list cover the whole world.
Can I reuse these figures?: Yes. Each page carries enough method to reproduce the result independently, which is the point. A link back is appreciated and lets your readers check the current value.