How Many Public Holidays? Why Raw Counts Mislead Comparisons

Someone in your company asks which country has the most public holidays, because they want to estimate how many working days each office has in the year. It sounds like a simple lookup. It is not. Depending on how you count, the same country can come out with very different numbers, and the order between two countries can flip from one year to the next. Here is why, and how to count properly.

Worked example: Germany and England in 2027

Germany has nine public holidays that apply nationwide. England and Wales have eight bank holidays. On that basis Germany has more. Now look at where they fall in 2027.

Four of Germany's nine fall on a weekend, and Germany has no general rule to move them to a weekday. That leaves 5 weekday holidays.

In England and Wales, all eight bank holidays fall on weekdays in 2027. New Year's Day is a Friday; Good Friday and Easter Monday fall on 26 and 29 March; the early May, spring and summer bank holidays are Mondays by design (3 May, 31 May and 30 August). Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so substitute days are given on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December. Result: 8 weekday holidays.

By raw count, Germany 9, England 8. By weekdays lost, England 8, Germany 5. The comparison reverses.

And this is before regional holidays. Bavaria adds Epiphany (Wednesday 6 January), Corpus Christi (Thursday 27 May) and All Saints' Day (Monday 1 November), all weekdays in 2027, plus Assumption in many municipalities, which falls on a Sunday that year. A Munich office therefore has 8 weekday public holidays in 2027, while an office in a state without those extras has 5. See the Germany Public Holidays and UK Public Holidays pages for the full regional detail.

Five things that distort raw counts

1. Weekend collisions

Fixed-date holidays move through the week from year to year. In some years they mostly fall on weekdays; in others several land on a Saturday or Sunday. Without a substitute rule, a weekend holiday costs no working day. Holidays tied to a weekday, such as Easter Monday or a "first Monday in May", always cost one.

2. Substitute and observance rules

Countries handle weekend holidays very differently. The UK gives substitute weekdays. US federal holidays falling on a Saturday are generally observed on the Friday before, and those on a Sunday on the Monday after. Japan makes the next non-holiday weekday a substitute holiday when a national holiday falls on a Sunday. South Korea applies substitute days to some holidays but not all. Germany and many other European countries have no general substitute rule. Two countries with the same nominal count can lose very different numbers of working days.

3. Regional holidays

In Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and others, a large share of holidays is set by states, cantons or regions. Spain's regions can choose some of their own days and, in some cases, move a holiday to Monday. A single national figure either understates the holidays in some regions or overstates them in others.

4. Customary days that are not holidays

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not statutory holidays in Germany, but many offices close or work half days. Midsummer Eve in Sweden has a similar status. Official lists leave these out, yet they affect real capacity.

5. Different weekends

In countries with a Friday and Saturday weekend, a holiday on Sunday costs a working day and one on Friday does not. Comparing counts across weekend systems without adjusting for this produces nonsense.

A method that compares like with like

1. Fix the year. Easter, lunar holidays and weekday collisions all shift annually, so compare one specific year.
2. Fix the location. Choose the state, region or city where the office is, not just the country.
3. Use the local weekend. Define working days by the country's own working week.
4. Count observed days. Use the day actually taken off, including substitute days, rather than the traditional date.
5. Separate statutory from customary. List customary closures and half days separately so you can include or exclude them consistently.
6. Report working days, not holidays. The figure that matters is working days remaining after weekends and observed holidays.

The business days calculator does steps 1 to 5 for a chosen country and date range, and the methodology page explains how we treat regional, substitute and observation-based days. The countries index covers each calendar.

Why year-to-year totals swing

Run the German count for a different year and the answer changes. When 1 May, 3 October and both Christmas days fall on weekdays, the nationwide weekday total rises to the full nine. When several land on weekends, as in 2027, it drops. England's total, by contrast, barely moves, because its substitute rule absorbs weekend collisions. Any published comparison that does not say which year it used, and whether it counted weekdays or calendar days, cannot be checked. Treat league tables of "most holidays" with that in mind.

Holidays are only part of the picture

Even an accurate holiday comparison does not give you annual capacity. Statutory and contractual annual leave, which varies widely between countries and employers, usually matters more than public holidays. So do working hours, part-time arrangements and local practices such as long summer breaks. If you are estimating staffing, check your contracts and local rules for leave as well.

Before you compare countries

• Pick one year and one location per office.
• Count weekday holidays, including substitute days.
• Note regional and customary closures separately.
• Recalculate each year rather than reusing last year's totals.
• Add annual leave before drawing any conclusion about capacity.