Switzerland public holidays 2026

What the numbers say about Switzerland in 2026

The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Switzerland. 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 May 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 63 working days (January, February, March).

Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 4, Switzerland sits below the middle of the range, around the 2nd percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).

Holidays create 1 stretch of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 3 days, from 25 December to 27 December (Christmas Day). There are also 2 bridge days: 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 Switzerland

Switzerland has only one federal public holiday, National Day on 1 August. All the others are set by the cantons, and they differ so much that a single national number tells you very little. Depending on the canton, a worker may have about eight public holidays or as many as fifteen, largely reflecting whether the canton's history is Catholic or Protestant.

Some cantons also have half-day holidays, where the morning is worked and the afternoon is free. A whole-day count has no good way to show these, so they are left out here. If the difference matters for payroll, use the official cantonal list instead of this page.