Which Country (And Its Territories) Has the Most Time Zones?

Country That Has Most Time Zones

France holds 12 time zones, which is the highest in the world. The time zone is the area where they have uniform standard time for commercial and social purposes. The time zone is calculated with the boundary of regions and countries. This helps to maintain the same time among all regions. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the world’s standard time and followed across the world. Learn here to know more about Country That Has Most Time Zones.

World timing centers were established to follow accurate time across the world. It is associated with universal time. Some countries hold many time zones, but France is at the top with a dozen time zones. It even knocks countries like Russia and the United States. These two hold 11 time zones. 

Out of 12, eleven of the time zones have been adopted in overseas areas and one is used for the country’s mainland i.e. European part of France. Countries like the United Kingdom, Denmark, New Zealand, and the Netherlands also follow their time zones that are equivalent to France.

The Reason behind the Highest Time Zones

If you are wondering why France has most of the time zones, it is because of its far-flung overseas areas. Only one region holds the same time zone as the United States of Hawaii, which is the furthest west French Polynesia. French islands such as Wallis and Futuna use almost the same time zone. Saint Pierre and Miquelon follow DST-Daylight Saving Time.

Time Zone History of France

In 1884, the international countries commonly followed Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as a world’s standard time. GMT was observed solar time at the prime meridian that goes through Greenwich, United Kingdom. France was the country that followed its own standard time for many years. The standard time of France was based on solar time in Paris. The Paris Mean Time (PMT) was the local time of Paris (9 minutes and 11 seconds) which was ahead of GMT.

In 1911, France started using its own civil time rather than adopting GMT directly. In 1978, France advances its stand time by 1hour to Central European Time in 1940. And today France follows UTC standard.