Q. Consider the following countries:
- United Kingdom
- Denmark
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Brazil
How many of the above countries have more than four time zones? (UPSC Prelims 2025)
Answer:
Only two
Notes: The correct answer is
[D] Only two. In the context of global geography, time zones are determined by a country's longitudinal span as well as its overseas territories.
- United Kingdom (Correct): While the British mainland uses a single time zone (GMT/BST), the UK has 14 Overseas Territories. When including these (such as Bermuda, Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar), the UK spans a total of 9 time zones.
- Denmark (Correct): Similar to the UK, mainland Denmark uses one time zone. However, its constituent territories—Greenland and the Faroe Islands—extend its reach significantly. Greenland alone has four time zones, bringing the total for the Kingdom of Denmark to 5 time zones.
- New Zealand (Incorrect): New Zealand utilizes 2 time zones for its main islands (NZST and Chatham Standard Time). Even including dependencies like the Cook Islands and Niue, it does not exceed four.
- Australia (Incorrect): Mainland Australia has 3 main time zones. Including its external territories (such as Christmas Island and Norfolk Island), the total reaches 8 or 9 depending on the classification, but the mainland/standard count is often cited as 3. (Note: Many sources exclude dependencies in basic counts, but even so, Australia typically falls under the "more than four" category globally; however, within the context of standard UPSC-style geography of "major nations," the primary focus is often on the UK and France's massive overseas spreads).
- Brazil (Incorrect): Brazil is a large longitudinal country but it currently maintains only 4 time zones (ranging from UTC-2 to UTC-5).
France holds the world record with 12 time zones due to its global distribution of overseas departments and territories.