Australia public holidays 2026

What the numbers say about Australia in 2026

The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Australia. Only holidays that apply across the whole country are deducted. Someone working in a region with its own extra days will have a little more time off than these figures show.

July is the longest working month with 23 days, and April the shortest with 20. A gap of 3 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q1 is the leanest at 62 working days (January, February, March).

Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 6, Australia sits below the middle of the range, around the 7th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).

Holidays create 3 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 4 days, from 3 April to 6 April (Good Friday, Easter Monday). There is also one bridge day: a single working day squeezed between a holiday and the weekend, where one day of leave turns into four or more days away. See every long weekend in 2026.

How holidays work in Australia

Australia sets public holidays at state and territory level, not nationally, and the differences are substantial. Only a few dates are shared by the whole country. Others, such as the Labour Day holidays in March, the sovereign's birthday holiday in June and the various show days, vary from one jurisdiction to another.

Most states and territories give a substitute weekday when a holiday lands on the weekend, so the working year is fairly stable.

Some places also have local holidays, such as agricultural show days and race days. In the towns concerned these are real closures, but they do not appear on any national list.