Global new year's countdown begins: Who's first to celebrate, who's last?

As the world prepares to bid farewell to 2025, the first moments of 2026 will unfold across the globe in a sequential wave of celebration, dictated by the International Date Line.

The tiny pacific islands nations of Kiribati (specially the Line Islands) and Samoa will be the first to pop the champagne, entering the New Year at 10:00 GMT on December 31st.

They will be swiftly followed by New Zealand and major eastern Australian cities like Sydney.

The celebrations will then sweep across Asia where Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing will welcome 2026 hours later.

The new year’s celebrations will then continue into Europe, with London, Paris, and Berlin marking the transition at midnight local time.

Celebrations will be lastly enjoyed in America. Major cities such as New York, Toronto, and Buenos Aires will celebrate as the new day is already dawning in the Pacific. Finally, the last inhabited places to ring in the New Year will be the islands of Baker Island and Howland Island in the central Pacific (U.S. territories). However, they are uninhabited.

The last populated territories to celebrate will be American Samoa, Niue, and the Midway Islands. It will take them almost 25 hours to celebrate new year after Kiribati.