Time in Papua New Guinea

How many times does Papua New Guinea have?

The IANA database lists 2 separate zone areas for Papua New Guinea. Grouped by the time they actually show through 2026, that makes 2 different clocks, listed above. The offsets in use run from UTC+10 to UTC+11 in January.

None of them changes its clocks during the year.

Planning across the country

When you fix a call or a broadcast for people in several parts of Papua New Guinea, give the time with its zone, or use the converter to show every zone at once.

Where most people are

Measured by the people living in towns of 15,000 or more (GeoNames figures), the busiest clock in Papua New Guinea is the one kept in Port Moresby, UTC+10 in January: about 589,000 people, or 94% of the total across all the zone areas. Next comes the clock of Arawa (UTC+11) with about 40,000.

A worked example

When it is 9:00 am in Port Moresby in January, it is 10:00 am in Arawa.

The widest gap inside the country

The two clocks that are farthest apart differ by 1 hour in January, and by the same amount in July. On the map, the main cities run from Port Moresby at about 147.2° east to Arawa at about 155.6° east. By the sun alone those two are about 34 minutes apart.

The sun across Papua New Guinea

Clocks are set by law, but the sun keeps its own time. In Port Moresby, the most westerly of the main cities (about 147.2° east), the sun is highest at about 12:11 pm by the clock in January. In Arawa, the most easterly (about 155.6° east), it is highest at about 12:38 pm. The closer that figure is to 12:00, the better the clock fits the daylight in that city.

Papua New Guinea and the rest of the world

When it is 12:00 noon in Port Moresby, it is 7:30 am in India; 2:00 am in London in January and 3:00 am in July; 9:00 pm the previous day in New York in January and 10:00 pm the previous day in July. Other parts of Papua New Guinea are earlier or later than that by the amounts in the table at the top of this page.