Current Time in Pacific/Kosrae Time Zone

Where Pacific/Kosrae Applies

Pacific/Kosrze is used exclusively in the state of Kosrae, part of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Kosrae is a single island (and its surrounding islets) located in the western Pacific Ocean. The FSM comprises four states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Each state historically used its own time zone, but today only Kosrae retains a distinct offset. The other states use UTC+10:00 (Chuuk and Yap) and UTC+11:00 (Pohnpei). However, Pohnpei uses Pacific/Pohnpei, which is also UTC+11:00 but is a separate zone for historical reasons. Kosrae is the easternmost state of the FSM, and its time zone reflects its longitude.

Offset and Abbreviation

The standard offset is UTC+11:00. This means that when it is noon in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), it is 11:00 PM in Kosrae. The abbreviation commonly used for this offset is +11. There is no official IANA abbreviation for the zone, but local time is often referred to as Kosrae Time (KOST). However, KOST is not a standard abbreviation and may cause confusion with other zones. In practice, the offset +11 is used in international contexts.

Daylight Saving Time: None

Pacific/Kosrae does not observe daylight saving time. The offset remains constant at UTC+11:00 throughout the year. This is common for equatorial and low-latitude regions where daylight hours vary little. The FSM abolished DST after a brief trial in the 1990s, and Kosrae has never adopted it. Therefore, there is no spring-forward or fall-back transition, making scheduling straightforward.

Countries and Cities

The only country using Pacific/Kosrae is the Federated States of Micronesia, specifically the state of Kosrae. The capital and largest settlement is Tofol, located on the eastern side of the island. Other villages include Lelu, Malem, Utwe, and Walung. The entire island has a population of about 6,600 people. The zone does not apply to any other country or territory.

Business Hours and Call Scheduling

Kosrae's business hours typically run from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local time. Given the offset, this corresponds to 21:00 UTC to 06:00 UTC the next day. For callers in North America (e.g., Eastern Time, UTC-5), Kosrae is 16 hours ahead during standard time. For example, 9:00 AM in New York is 1:00 AM the next day in Kosrae. For Europe (e.g., Central European Time, UTC+1), Kosrae is 10 hours ahead. 10:00 AM in Berlin is 8:00 PM in Kosrae. For Asia (e.g., Japan Standard Time, UTC+9), Kosrae is 2 hours ahead. 12:00 PM in Tokyo is 2:00 PM in Kosrae. Australia (e.g., Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10) is 1 hour behind Kosrae. 10:00 AM in Sydney is 11:00 AM in Kosrae. The best overlap for business calls with North America is late afternoon in Kosrae (e.g., 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM) which corresponds to early morning (midnight to 2:00 AM) in the US. With Europe, late morning in Kosrae (10:00 AM to 12:00 PM) overlaps with late evening in Europe (10:00 PM to midnight). With Asia, the overlap is wide: most of the day in Kosrae falls within Asian business hours.

Other Zones at the Same Offset

Several other IANA zones share the UTC+11:00 offset: Antarctica/Macquarie, Asia/Magadan, Asia/Sakhalin, Asia/Srednekolymsk, Australia/Hobart, Australia/Lord_Howe, Australia/Melbourne, Australia/Sydney, Pacific/Bougainville, Pacific/Efate, Pacific/Guadalcanal, Pacific/Noumea. However, many of these zones observe daylight saving time, so their offset changes part of the year. Pacific/Kosrae is unique among these for its year-round constant offset and its remote island location.