The 2026 public holiday report
The 44 countries covered here observe 537 national public holidays between them in 2026, an average of 12.2 each. Colombia has the most with 19; Vietnam the fewest with 7. Between them, 110 of those holidays land on a Saturday or Sunday without being moved, which is 110 days off that exist on paper and not in practice.
1. Who gets the most public holidays in 2026
The top and bottom of the table, ranked on national public holidays only, counted once each even where the day off is moved.
| Rank | Country | Holidays | On a weekend | Long weekends | Working days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colombia | 19 | 0 | 16 | 242 |
| 2 | Thailand | 18 | 2 | 6 | 245 |
| 3 | Indonesia | 17 | 3 | 7 | 247 |
| 4 | Japan | 17 | 0 | 8 | 244 |
| 5 | Malaysia | 17 | 5 | 5 | 249 |
| 6 | Argentina | 16 | 1 | 9 | 246 |
| 7 | Chile | 16 | 6 | 6 | 251 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 15 | 2 | 5 | 246 |
| 9 | China | 15 | 4 | 6 | 250 |
| 10 | Greece | 14 | 4 | 5 | 251 |
| 11 | Poland | 14 | 6 | 3 | 253 |
| 12 | Austria | 13 | 3 | 5 | 251 |
| 13 | Egypt | 13 | 3 | 4 | 249 |
| 14 | Finland | 13 | 6 | 3 | 254 |
| 15 | Italy | 13 | 6 | 3 | 254 |
| 16 | Philippines | 13 | 1 | 7 | 249 |
| 17 | Portugal | 13 | 4 | 4 | 252 |
| 18 | Singapore | 13 | 3 | 6 | 251 |
| 19 | South Africa | 13 | 3 | 5 | 251 |
| 20 | Sweden | 13 | 6 | 3 | 254 |
| 21 | Brazil | 12 | 3 | 7 | 252 |
| 22 | Kenya | 12 | 3 | 5 | 252 |
| 23 | Nigeria | 12 | 1 | 5 | 249 |
| 24 | Norway | 12 | 4 | 4 | 253 |
| 25 | South Korea | 12 | 5 | 5 | 251 |
| 26 | France | 11 | 2 | 5 | 252 |
| 27 | New Zealand | 11 | 0 | 8 | 250 |
| 28 | Switzerland | 11 | 5 | 3 | 255 |
| 29 | Ukraine | 11 | 0 | 8 | 250 |
| 30 | United States | 11 | 0 | 8 | 250 |
| 31 | Australia | 10 | 3 | 4 | 254 |
| 32 | Belgium | 10 | 2 | 4 | 253 |
| 33 | Canada | 10 | 1 | 5 | 252 |
| 34 | Denmark | 10 | 3 | 3 | 254 |
| 35 | India | 10 | 1 | 5 | 252 |
| 36 | Ireland | 10 | 1 | 7 | 252 |
| 37 | Spain | 10 | 3 | 4 | 254 |
| 38 | Germany | 9 | 2 | 4 | 254 |
| 39 | Netherlands | 9 | 1 | 4 | 253 |
| 40 | Turkey | 9 | 1 | 3 | 250 |
| 41 | United Arab Emirates | 8 | 0 | 2 | 249 |
| 42 | United Kingdom | 8 | 0 | 5 | 253 |
| 43 | Mexico | 7 | 0 | 5 | 254 |
| 44 | Vietnam | 7 | 1 | 2 | 252 |
2. Who comes off worst from the calendar
A holiday on a Saturday, in a country that does not grant a substitute weekday, is a day off that never happens. In 2026 that costs Chile the most: 6 of its 16 holidays fall on a weekend, so it effectively observes 10. The countries losing the most days this way:
- Chile: 6 of 16 on a weekend, leaving 10 weekday holidays
- Finland: 6 of 13 on a weekend, leaving 7 weekday holidays
- Italy: 6 of 13 on a weekend, leaving 7 weekday holidays
- Poland: 6 of 14 on a weekend, leaving 8 weekday holidays
- Sweden: 6 of 13 on a weekend, leaving 7 weekday holidays
- Malaysia: 5 of 17 on a weekend, leaving 12 weekday holidays
Countries with a substitute day rule do not appear here, because their weekend holidays are moved to a weekday and counted on the day taken. That is why a rule that looks like bureaucratic detail is worth more to a worker than an extra holiday on paper.
3. Where a day of leave is worth the most
A bridge day is one working day between a public holiday and a weekend. Take it and the two join up. Across the 12 countries with planning pages:
- Belgium: three bridge days, 4 long weekends before any leave is taken
- India: three bridge days, 5 long weekends before any leave is taken
- Malaysia: three bridge days, 5 long weekends before any leave is taken
- Netherlands: three bridge days, 4 long weekends before any leave is taken
- South Africa: three bridge days, 5 long weekends before any leave is taken
- Germany: two bridge days, 4 long weekends before any leave is taken
4. The dates the world shares in 2026
Some dates are close to universal and some are not nearly as universal as they look. The dates observed in the most countries in 2026:
- : a public holiday in 41 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 37 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 30 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 24 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 20 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 19 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 13 of the 44 countries covered
- : a public holiday in 12 of the 44 countries covered
5. What changed from 2025
Seven countries observe a different number of national public holidays in 2026 than in 2025. Most of these are calendar mechanics rather than policy: a lunar date crossing a year boundary, or a substitute day appearing because a fixed holiday moved onto a weekend.
- Brazil: 10 in 2025, 12 in 2026 (+2)
- Singapore: 11 in 2025, 13 in 2026 (+2)
- Colombia: 18 in 2025, 19 in 2026 (+1)
- Italy: 12 in 2025, 13 in 2026 (+1)
- Japan: 16 in 2025, 17 in 2026 (+1)
- South Korea: 11 in 2025, 12 in 2026 (+1)
- Malaysia: 16 in 2025, 17 in 2026 (+1)
Method, and how to cite this
Every figure here is computed from the same dataset that renders the country pages, so nothing on this page can disagree with them. National public holidays only; regional days are excluded. A holiday moved off a weekend is counted once, on the day observed, which is why these totals match official government counts and are lower than on sites that list both dates. Working day counts assume a Monday to Friday week and do not subtract holidays that fall on a weekend. The full rules are on the methodology page, and every correction applied to the source data is in the corrections log.
Countries whose 2026 calendar is not yet official are included and labelled as such on their own pages; none of the 44 is in that position for 2026.
The underlying data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Download it at /data/year/2026.json or read the API documentation.
Other years: the 2025 report, the 2027 report. The country by country tables behind all of them start at the country index.
Suggested citation: HolidayGrid, The 2026 public holiday report, holidaygrid.net/report/2026, CC BY 4.0.