Is a working day the same as a weekday?

Not quite. A weekday is any day from Monday to Friday, while a working day is a weekday that is not a public holiday. Every working day is a weekday, but not every weekday is a working day. The difference is exactly the set of weekday holidays.

How many weekdays does a leap year have?

A leap year has 366 days, which is 52 weeks plus 2 leftover days. Depending on which weekdays those two extra days fall on, a leap year has 260, 261 or 262 weekdays. The exact count still depends on the starting day of the year.

Do weekends ever count as working days?

In the standard Monday-to-Friday model, no — Saturday and Sunday are non-working by definition. Some industries and regions use a different working week, though, so a calculator that lets you define which days count is useful when your schedule is not the usual five days.

Why do payroll and holiday-pay figures use working days?

Because pay is usually earned on days you actually work, not on weekends or holidays. Dividing an annual figure by the number of working days gives a fair daily rate, and counting the working days in a period gives the amount owed. Getting the working-day count right therefore matters for accurate pay.

How Many Working Days Are There in a Year?

Published 1/2/2026 · 4 min read · Everyday calculators

Lena Hoffmann — Science & education writer at Allin

Mathematics · Physics

Checked against 2 sources

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In short

A typical year has about 260 to 262 weekdays — that is 52 weeks of 5 weekdays, plus one or two extra days depending on which weekday the year starts on and whether it is a leap year. Subtracting public holidays, which usually number around 8 to 15, leaves roughly 245 to 253 actual working days. The exact figure depends on your country and, in some places, your region.

A year has roughly 260 weekdays before holidays. Learn where that number comes from, why it varies by country, and how public holidays bring it down to the working days you actually get.

Where the 260 comes from

Start with the calendar's building blocks. A year has 365 days, and 365 divided by 7 is 52 weeks plus 1 day. Each week has 5 weekdays, so 52 × 5 = 260 weekdays form the base. The leftover day — or two, in a leap year — tips the total to 261 or 262 depending on which weekdays those extra days land on.

This is why the answer is a small range rather than a single number. A year beginning on a Saturday, for example, spends its leftover day on a weekend and stays at 260 weekdays, while a year beginning on a Wednesday pushes an extra weekday into the count. Leap years add a second leftover day, nudging some years to 262 weekdays before any holidays are removed.

Public holidays bring the number down

Weekdays are not all working days. Every country sets public holidays that fall on weekdays, and each one removes a day from the working total. The number of holidays varies widely: some countries observe around eight, others fifteen or more. So a year with 261 weekdays and 11 weekday holidays gives 250 working days.

There is a further twist: a holiday that falls on a weekend does not reduce working days, because that day was not a working day anyway. Some countries then grant a substitute day off on the following Monday, which does reduce the count; others do not. This is why the same nominal list of holidays can yield different working-day totals from one year to the next.

Why it varies by country and region

Public holidays are set nationally and often regionally, so the working-day total is genuinely local. A country with many regional holidays can differ from one province to the next, meaning two colleagues in the same company but different regions may have a different number of working days. This is normal and reflects real differences in the calendar, not an error.

Because of all these moving parts — the starting weekday, leap years, the holiday list, weekend substitutions and regional rules — the safest way to get an exact figure is to let a business-days calculator apply your country's holiday set. Enter the year and your location, and it counts the weekdays and subtracts the holidays that actually apply to you.

Worked with our own calculator

Business days calculator

Given

Start date: 1985-03-20
End date: 1985-03-20

Result

Business days: 1
Total days: 1

These figures are produced by the calculator below, not typed in by hand — they are recomputed whenever the tool changes.

Run it on your own figures →

Frequently asked questions

Is a working day the same as a weekday?: Not quite. A weekday is any day from Monday to Friday, while a working day is a weekday that is not a public holiday. Every working day is a weekday, but not every weekday is a working day. The difference is exactly the set of weekday holidays.
How many weekdays does a leap year have?: A leap year has 366 days, which is 52 weeks plus 2 leftover days. Depending on which weekdays those two extra days fall on, a leap year has 260, 261 or 262 weekdays. The exact count still depends on the starting day of the year.
Do weekends ever count as working days?: In the standard Monday-to-Friday model, no — Saturday and Sunday are non-working by definition. Some industries and regions use a different working week, though, so a calculator that lets you define which days count is useful when your schedule is not the usual five days.
Why do payroll and holiday-pay figures use working days?: Because pay is usually earned on days you actually work, not on weekends or holidays. Dividing an annual figure by the number of working days gives a fair daily rate, and counting the working days in a period gives the amount owed. Getting the working-day count right therefore matters for accurate pay.

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Sources

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