How many working days are in a year?

A year has 260, 261 or 262 working days when every weekday is counted. A weekday is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, and the number of weekdays depends on the year. A second way of counting also takes out the public holidays that land on a weekday, because workplaces that observe those holidays are closed on them. In the United States, the second count is about 11 days lower than the first.

The table below gives both counts for eight calendar years. The holidays in the table are the United States federal holidays, which are the 11 days that a federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) names as paid days off for federal employees. Other countries have their own public holidays. Outside the United States, the weekday counts in the table still apply and the holiday counts do not.

The year 2026 has 261 work days from Monday to Friday, and 250 once the 11 federal holidays are taken out. Each of those holidays takes one weekday out of 2026. Independence Day falls on a Saturday, so federal workers get Friday, July 3 off in its place. At 8 hours a day, 250 working days are 2,000 working hours.

The year 2027 also has 261 work days from Monday to Friday, but it has 249 after holidays, one fewer than 2026. The reason is a holiday that belongs to the year after it. New Year’s Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, so its day off moves back to Friday, December 31, 2027, and 2027 ends up with 12 weekday holidays.

A holiday’s day off moves by a published rule. The rule comes from the Office of Personnel Management, the human resources agency of the United States government, and it covers most federal employees. A holiday on a Saturday is taken on the Friday before it, and a holiday on a Sunday is taken on the Monday after it. The table below lists the days off for 2026.

A month of 2026 has 20 to 23 weekdays, before holidays are taken out. February has 20 weekdays, and July and December have 23 each, because a month’s count depends on its length and on how many weekends fit inside it. The table below counts the weekdays in every month, takes out the federal holidays that fall in that month, and shows the working days that are left. The working hours in each month are on the page about working hours in a month.

A year has 52 weekends, one in each of its 52 whole weeks, which makes 104 weekend days: 52 weekends × 2 days. The year 2026 has exactly that many, because its 365 days less its 261 weekdays leave 104 Saturdays and Sundays.

Some years hold one or two weekend days more, because the extra day or two of the year can land on a Saturday or a Sunday. The year 2023 started on a Sunday and had 105 weekend days. The leap year 2028 starts on a Saturday and has 106 weekend days, the most a year can have.

A person who gets every federal holiday and takes 10 days of vacation works 240 days in 2026. The working is 261 weekdays, less 11 federal holidays, less 10 vacation days. The same subtraction works for any job: start from the weekdays in the year, take out the holidays that fall on a weekday, then take out the vacation days.

Vacation is set by each employer in the United States, so the table below works through three examples: 10, 15 and 20 vacation days. The working year counted in hours is on the page about working hours in a year.

Your own working days depend on the year, the holidays your workplace closes for and the days you take off. Choose a year, keep the United States federal holidays or enter the number of public holidays you get, and add your vacation. The calculator counts the weekdays in that year and takes each day off out of them. It also shows how many working hours those working days hold, at the number of hours in your own workday.