Easternmost Point by Country 2024

Cardinal directions such as east, west, north and south can have some ambiguity when applied to a three-dimensional object like the Earth. In the case of east and west, the most common approach to this problem is to define these directions in terms of travel with respect to the anti-meridian. For the topic of easternmost points by country, the best answers also depend on the specific political border that you use.

Prime Meridian

A prime meridian is a line of longitude in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined as 0°. On Earth, the prime meridian was the Greenwich meridian from 1884 to 1989, when it changed to the IERS Reference Meridian (IRM) due to improvements in instrumentation. The IRM is only 5.3 seconds, or 102 meters, to the east of the Greenwich meridian, which is usually insignificant for non-scientific applications.

Anti-meridian

An anti-meridian is the line of longitude that’s halfway around a spheroid body from the prime meridian, which would be 180 degrees longitude in a 360-degree coordinate system. Together, these two meridians define a great circle that divides the Earth into Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Using this construction, the term "easternmost" can be defined as the furthest you can go when traveling eastward toward the antemeridian, while remaining within a country.

Overview

For land, the prime meridian on Earth passes mostly through Europe and Africa, while the anti-meridian primarily passes through the Pacific Ocean, along with territory belonging to Russia, Fiji and New Zealand. By this view, these are the easternmost countries in the world. Countries like the United States have territories in both hemispheres, but they’re considered western countries because the great majority of their territory is in the Western Hemisphere.

Easternmost Points

The following chart shows eastern points of interest in the countries under discussion:

• Fiji Vatoa island 178°15′W

• United States (all territories) Point Udall, Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands 64°34′W
• United States (continental territories) West Quoddy Head 66°56′W
• New Zealand East Cape (North Island) 178°54′E

• Russia Cape Dezhnev 169°40′W

Russia and Fiji are the only two countries where the anti-meridian goes through their territories. Russia has far more territory on the anti-meridian than Fiji, so it’s the easternmost country under this definition. The anti-meridian also passes between islands belonging to New Zealand, but doesn’t actually pass over any of them. Note that the table above only shows significant settlements or geographical features that are closest to the anti-meridian within that country.