Who Uses UTC? Who Uses GMT? What Is The Difference?

Update: Along with many others, I’ve been confused and not completely accurate about the dissimilarity between UTC and GMT. There is a difference. The two are commonly used interchangeably, however, the distinction needs to be clarified for the record.

The Difference Explained

***** GMT is a defined time zone and UTC is a time standard. It is a standard way of tracking time globally. *****

For example, GMT is used in the United Kingdom and Eastern Standard Time is used in the eastern portion of the United States. Both can be represented in the UTC format, which is universally acknowledged around the world.

The full credit goes to Timeanddate.com, a classy website that does a magnificent job of explaining this in depth. I apologize for the error in my discrepancy and am happy to fully acknowledge my error.

What Is GMT?

GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is an official time zone, just as EST would be the official time zone for the city of New York.

The countries that observe GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) are explained below.

African Countries That Observe GMT All year

Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Northern European Countries That Observe GMT All Year

Greenland and Iceland.

United Kingdom Observes GMT In Winter But Not Summer

England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Republic Of Ireland use GMT in the winter, but not summer because they use British Summer Time (BST). Some say it is wrong to call this Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Summer Time in Europe

Summer Time in Europe is the arrangement by which clocks are advanced by one hour in spring and moved back in autumn to make the most of seasonal daylight, also called daylight saving time. This is done in all of the countries of Europe except Iceland, Belarus, and Russia.

What Is UTC?

Again, I stand to be corrected and would like to get this right. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is not an official time zone for any country. It is the formal method of presenting the time around the world.

But, for most purposes, (Coordinated Universal Time) UTC is used interchangeably with GMT, but GMT is no longer precisely defined by the scientific community; also, some assert GMT can refer to British Summer Time (BST), which is one hour ahead of UTC.

This is a 24-hour time scale used in many places around the world for civil time. Time zones around the world are used and compared to positive or negative offsets from UTC.

Who uses UTC? Here’s a small list: Military, governments, GPS systems, radio stationS, NOAA weather, amateur radio operators, air traffic control, the internet Network Time Protocol (NTP), hospitals, mariners, ISS (International Space Station), maps, and many civilians.