Working days by country in 2026
How many working days each of the 28 countries covered here has in 2026, ranked from most to fewest. Every figure is computed from the national public holiday calendar and a Monday–Friday work week.
In 2026 the totals run from 254 working days in Denmark down to 249 in Austria — a difference of 5 days.
Working days by country in 2026
| Country | Working days |
|---|---|
| Denmark | 254 |
| Italy | 254 |
| Luxembourg | 254 |
| Netherlands | 254 |
| Slovakia | 254 |
| Slovenia | 254 |
| United Kingdom | 254 |
| Belgium | 253 |
| Hungary | 253 |
| Poland | 253 |
| Spain | 253 |
| Bulgaria | 252 |
| Croatia | 252 |
| Estonia | 252 |
| Finland | 252 |
| France | 252 |
| Germany | 252 |
| Portugal | 252 |
| Greece | 251 |
| Lithuania | 251 |
| Sweden | 251 |
| Cyprus | 250 |
| Czechia | 250 |
| Ireland | 250 |
| Latvia | 250 |
| Malta | 250 |
| Romania | 250 |
| Austria | 249 |
Figures for 2026. "Holidays on weekdays" counts only public holidays that fall Monday to Friday and therefore reduce the working-day total. "Lost to weekend" counts public holidays falling on a Saturday or Sunday, which produce no day off unless the country has a substitute rule.
How to read these figures
The working-day column is the one that matters for payroll and capacity: calendar days minus weekends minus public holidays that actually fall on a weekday. A country can have a long holiday list and still show a high working-day count if those holidays keep landing at the weekend.
That is what the last two columns explain. Where holidays are lost to the weekend and no substitute rule applies, the days simply disappear that year. Where a substitute rule exists, the day off is preserved — either moved to the next working day, or granted as extra leave.
These are national baselines. Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom all have regional holidays on top, so staff in Bavaria, Catalonia or Scotland have fewer working days than the national figure shows. Each country page sets out the regional position in detail.