Getting away from work in 2018

Countries with diverse religious practices tend to give more national holidays to accommodate the cultural richness of their populations. Curiously, territories that are geographically smaller also seem to have a tendency to give more national holidays.

BEFORE WE START
Depending on the place, these holidays may be limited to particular regions, or only apply to government employees

The singularity of India

India’s diversity translates into a lot of regional holidays – far more than any other country. But the entire population doesn’t get to enjoy all 100 holidays together. In 2018 there will only be three nationwide rest days applying

SUNDAY HOLIDAYS AREN’T FUNNY
National holidays are occasionally fated to fall on a Sunday. Some governments will move them to Monday, extending the weekend. The good news is that public holidays occur less often on weekends than weekdays

Work rest in Hong Kong for 2018

Half the holidays celebrated in Hong Kong are secular while the rest are of a religious nature. There are 17 public holidays in 2018

Discover by yourself

Here is the data from 20 countries for you to compare. Our staff chose these countries to cover a broad spectrum of governments that provide the most and least holidays. Bear in mind the definitions of regional-national holidays made above:

SELECT TWO OPTIONS TO COMPARE

Fun findings in the data

MIDDLE YEAR AT THE OFFICE
If we combine the 20 selected calendars across the year, July has the least public holidays. By contrast, March hits the jackpot for celebrations ALL CALENDARS TOGETHER
If we took every public holiday from all 20 of the places featured below and applied them to a single calendar, the only full Monday-Saturday working week would be the second week of March. Most of the year we would only need to work 2-3 days a week

SIMBOL AND COLOUR KEYS