[en] Statistics about time zones in North America

How many people live in the different time zones of North America? Let's have a look at standard or winter time first:

Time zones in North America (Winter)

46% of the population of North America live in the Central Time Zone, which includes cities such as Chicago, Houston, Mexico City and Havana.
34% of North Americans live in the Eastern Time Zone, where New York, Toronto and Montreal are located.
Only 11% are in the Pacific Time Zone, among others in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Mountain Time is between Central and Pacific. 7% of North Americans live in this time zone, which includes Phoenix, Denver and Tijuana.
The other 5 time zones make up a total of 1.6% of the population.

Looking at Canada, the United States, Mexico and the other countries separately, the pictures are different:

Time zones in Canada

61% of Canadians live in the Eastern Time Zone, which includes most of Ontario and Quebec. The two western time zones make up 12 to 13% each, e.g. Vancouver with Pacific Time or Calgary with Mountain Time. Another 6 to 7% live in the Central and Atlantic Time Zones, whose most populous cities are Winnipeg and Halifax, respectively. 1.5% live in Newfoundland.

Time zones in the USA

Eastern Time dominates in the United States, too. However only 45% of the nation live in this time zone—mostly in Florida and New York. 29% of the U.S. have Central Time (especially in Texas and Illinois), 17% Pacific Time (mostly California), 7% Mountain Time (mainly Arizona and Colorado). The other 2% are distributed among 5 time zones from Guam to Puerto Rico.

Time zones in Mexico

87% of the population of Mexico live in the Central Time Zone (tiempo del centro). Only 7% have Mountain Time (tiempo de la montañas / tiempo del Pacífico) in Chihuahua, Sinaloa and three other states, 3% are on Pacific Time (tiempo del noroeste) in Baja California, 1.3% on Eastern Time (tiempo del sureste) in Quintana Roo.

Time zones in Central America and the Caribbean

If you combine the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, 73% of their total population live with Central Time (Central America without Belize and Panama), 25% with Eastern Time (Cuba, Haiti, Panama and others). Only 2% live in the Eastern Caribbean Time Zone, which corresponds to Canada's Atlantic Time in winter. Another 0.1% live in Greenland or Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

In summer, daylight saving time  is in effect in most states and provinces of NAFTA as well as in Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas. That is when 40% of North Americans are on CDT, 34% on EDT, 13% each on PDT and MDT. Only 0.6% of them are in the other time zones then.

Time zones in North America (Summer)

These statistics are based on population figures from English Wikipedia consulted in May 2016. North America ranges from Alaska to Panama and from Greenland to Trinidad. Hawaii is mentioned in the U.S. chart, but due to its geographic location, it is not included in the North America charts.