How many standard time zones are there in the world?

Answer 1

The answer depends on exactly where in the world you are referencing. There are world time zone maps and there are time zones within different countries or continents that are different. Some of the different zones are:

The world time zone called Greenwich Mean Time has 25 time zones. It is set up with a starting point in Greenwich, England as point Zero and then east and west from there a division of 12 zones east and 12 zones west across the world map.

Other time zone maps have different divisions such as:
The USA time zone map has 6 time zones; Asia has up to 8 (depending on how you count); Australia has 6 (more or less, depending, some with, some without Daylight Savings Time- DST); Russia has 11; South America and Africa have 4; Mexico has 4 (one of which does not observe DST); Europe and Greenland have 3; and the Middle East has a a large number of them. In addition, the US Military uses its own time zone maps that use letters to designate the zone, such as Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, etc.

Answer 2

Terminology - 'standard time zone', not 'standard time zone'

As in all things, its is important to proceed from the basis of an agreed terminology. An important distinction needs to be made between the natural world, and standard time which is a civil and legal construct. There is no such thing as a 'standard' time zone. the world is divided into standard time zones.

The world takes 1 day, or (approximately) 24 hours to complete one revolution. That, after all, is what a day is. It therefore follows, that if you divide the world into 24 equal zones, to correspond to each of the 24 hours in one day, there would be 24 equally-sized zones, each 15 degrees of longitude wide. However, there are precisely zero of these 'standard' zones. Not one single time zone is 15 degrees wide with uniform time from pole to pole. And, despite what may people will insist on telling you, there aren't just 24 of them, either.

That is because dividing the earth into 24 zones does not allow for the irregularity of the landmasses, the meandering nature of international and interregional borders, and the numerous enacted laws regarding standard time. Even the position of the International Date Line itself, which in theory should directly follow 180 degrees longitude, in fact varies by many degrees east and west due to local considerations. It is counter-intuitive but legally, even though it is the same sun beaming down at the same moment on to the same line of longitude, what day of the week it actually is in that part of the world depends purely on your point of latitude. Go due north or south and today could very well be tomorrow (or yesterday, depending on where you started from).

And what does all that have to do with the price of fish? Well, a standard time zone is a geographical region in which there is an defined standard time that is used to synchronise clocks throughtout that region. 'Standard Time' is thus distinct from 'Mean Local Time' or 'Solar Time,' where time is based on the position of the sun in the sky relative to that location. The arrival of the railways in the 19th century, and the need for accurate and coordinated timekeeping across much greater distances heralded the introduction of standard time zones. A standard time zone is often uniform throughout an entire country, but some larger countries (Australia, USA, Canada, Russia, etc) need several zones.

On that basis, and as outlined in the earlier answer below, there are 26 (full hour) standard time zones in the world. It is possible to accomodate 26 zones in a 24 hour world, when you remember that some longitudes are simultaneously two different days. Which day is correct for you depends on which side of the IDL your current latitude puts you.

Some regions also use partial hour offsets from UTC, and under the strictest of definitions these should also be counted as separate standard time zones, although they are often overlooked in practice. These zones are:

Marquises Is. (France): UTC -9.5 h

Venezuela: UTC - 4.5 h

Newfoundland I., Canada: UTC - 3.5 h

Iran: UTC + 3.5 h

Afganistan: UTC + 4.5 h

India: UTC + 5.5 h

Nepal: UTC + 5.75 h

Myanmar: UTC + 6.5 h

Cocos Is. (Australia): UTC + 6.5 h

Central Australia: + 9.5 h

Lord Howe I. (Australia): UTC + 10.5 h

Norfolk I. (Australia): UTC +5 11.5 h

Chatham Is. (New Zealand): UTC + 12.75 h

Inclusion of these regions in the count would bring the total to 39 zones.

For the ultimate of pedants it would be worth noting that, being a purely civil and legal construct, standard time is actually separate and distinct from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. That is to say, that while - for example - standard time is the same in Totonto as it is New York, the underlying legislation is not the same. It is not 12pm in Totonto because it is 12pm in New York, it is 12 pm in Totonto because the Ontarian provincial government says it is 12pm and it is 12 pm in New York because the New York State Assembly has decreed it to be so. So, strictly speaking, you are dealing with two legally distinct and separate standard time zones. Extend that principle to the entire world, and also take into account that many regions have two time systems (standard and 'daylight saving' or 'summer' time) and the number of distinct standard time zones will be well into 3 figures.

There are 24 standard time zones in the world.

There's a few non standard zones, too.

Time zones are divided into 15 degree (longitude) segments, so 360 degrees divided by 15 equals 24 time zones. Your question said "standard," so we are not looking at the myriad locally adjusted time zones that exist around the world.

There are 26 standard time zones in the world.

The wide-ranging Pacific island nation of Kiribati used to straddle the international date line, which meant that the same period of daylight would be (for example) both Monday 1st of ____ and Tuesday 2nd of ____, depending on which part of the country - i.e. on which side of the line - you were located.

The situation was rectified by moving the international date line, which now has a 'bulge' where it follows Kiribati's border. The two westernmost timezones in Kiribati skipped over 1 January 1995 (31.XII.94 was followed by 02.II.95), thereby changing from UTC-11 and UTC-10 to UTC+13 and UTC+14 respectively.

Answer 3

depending on your source there are 24 or 25 standard time zones

Answer 4

24 timezones throughout the world.

Answer 5

24