Oceania ¡ Polynesia ¡ Sovereign state
Current time in Samoa
A single time zone at UTC+13:00.
Saturday, June 6, 2026
About Samoa's time
A single time zone.
Samoa lives in the UTC+13:00 timezone, permanently. Itâs one of the first places on Earth to greet each new day, sharing the clock with a handful of Pacific neighbors.
Major cities
Cities of Samoa.
History
How Samoa keeps time.
Until recently, Samoaâs story was almost the opposite of what it is today. Through much of the 20th century, Samoa sat on the eastern side of the International Date Line, operating at UTCâ11:00âon the same calendar day as Hawaii and opposite to its closest trading partners, Australia and New Zealand.
This geographic quirk created constant commercial and social friction. Most of Samoaâs business, family, and cultural ties were with countries living âa day ahead.â By the 2000s, the mismatch was increasingly costly: weekends and workdays rarely aligned with key partners, and every crossâdateâline communication added a day of confusion.
In 2011, Samoa made one of the most dramatic timezone decisions in modern history. The government announced it would skip an entire calendar day to jump across the Date Line. On 29 December 2011, Samoaâs clocks jumped forward by 24 hours: Thursday, 29 December was followed directly by Saturday, 31 December. Friday, 30 December simply never existed in Samoa.
With that jump, Samoa moved from UTCâ11:00 to UTC+13:00, shifting from the âoldâ side of the Date Line to the ânewâ side. The country aligned its calendar day with Australia and New Zealand, boosting trade and making family ties and communications much simpler. The change also turned Samoa into one of the first countries in the world to welcome each new day, along with parts of Tonga, Kiribati, and New Zealand.
Did you know?
Things about Samoa's time.
Samoaâs timezone change didnât just redraw a line on a mapâit rewrote the nationâs calendar. When Samoa jumped over the Date Line in 2011, it erased a day from its history. People went to sleep on 29 December 2011 and woke up on 31 December 2011; legally and socially, 30 December never happened there.
One immediate consequence was on the labor market and tourism. For a short time, Samoa and nearby American Samoa were only an hour apart in clock time but a full day apart in date. That made Samoa attractive for tourists wanting to âexperience New Yearâs Eve twiceââring it in on the American side, then hop to the independent side for another midnight celebration 24 hours earlier in local date, but later in global realâtime.
Living at UTC+13:00 also means Samoa is among the first nations to see each sunrise and to usher in a new year. For Samoans, this has become a point of pride and marketing: the country brands itself as one where the new day âbegins.â For practical purposes, Samoaâs alignment with Australia and New Zealand time zones means business and government can operate more seamlessly across the Pacific, turning an awkward geographic position into a strategic advantage.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Samoa's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- What time zone is Samoa in?
- Samoa uses UTC+13:00 yearâround, covering all of the country under the Pacific/Apia time zone.
- Does Samoa observe daylight saving time?
- No. Samoa does not observe daylight saving time; its clocks stay at UTC+13 throughout the year.
- Why is Samoa on UTC+13 now when it used to be far behind?
- In 2011, Samoa moved across the International Date Line to align its calendar day with main trading partners like Australia and New Zealand, jumping from UTCâ11 to UTC+13 and skipping an entire calendar day in the process.
- Which countries share the same time zone as Samoa?
- Samoa shares UTC+13:00 with countries and territories such as parts of Tonga, Kiribatiâs Line Islands, and New Zealand (outside of its own daylight saving variations).
- How does Samoaâs time zone affect travel to and from Australia and New Zealand?
- Samoaâs move to UTC+13 simplifies scheduling with Australia and New Zealand, as they are now on the same or adjacent calendar dates, making flights, business, and communications much more straightforward.
Free ¡ Developer API
Time, as JSON.
Every IANA time zone with live offsets, DST status, and the countries and cities that use them â clean, dependable JSON. Sign up free and get an API key in seconds.
countries, cities, convert, DST transitions coming next.
Get your free API key â