Working Days Calculator
Count the working days in a year, or between any two dates, with the option to take out the US federal holidays.
- Whole year or date range
- Federal holidays optional
- Weekday breakdown
- Free
Count the working days
Counts 1 January to 31 December inclusive.
Both days are included in the count.
The federal holidays, on the day they are observed, from 1978 onwards. State, school and company holidays are not included.
How many working days are in a year?
Start with every day
A normal year has 365 days, a leap year 366.
Take out the weekends
There are 52 full weeks plus a day or two, so 104 or 105 days fall on a Saturday or Sunday.
What is left
Most years land on 261 weekdays, sometimes 260 or 262. Take out the 11 federal holidays and a typical US office year is about 250 days.
Exactly which day a year starts on decides whether you get 260, 261 or 262 weekdays, which is why the answer changes from year to year.
Questions people ask
How many working days are in a year?
Usually 261. A year has 52 full weeks (260 weekdays) plus one or two leftover days, so the total lands between 260 and 262 depending on which day the year starts on and whether it is a leap year.
How many working days are there after holidays?
About 250 in the United States, once the 11 federal holidays are taken out. The exact number changes each year because a holiday that falls on a weekend is observed on the nearest weekday, and one that falls on a Saturday can be observed in the previous year.
Does this include public holidays?
Only if you ask it to, and only the 11 US federal holidays. State holidays, school holidays, company closures and holidays in other countries are not included, so check your own calendar before relying on the number.
Are the start and end dates both counted?
Yes. A range from Monday to Friday counts as five working days, not four. That is the usual meaning when people ask how many working days a period contains.
What counts as a weekend?
Saturday and Sunday. Some countries rest on different days, and this calculator does not currently offer that choice.
How many working hours is that?
Multiply by your working day. At 8 hours a day, 261 working days is 2,088 hours; 250 days is 2,000 hours, which is where the common "2,000 hours a year" figure comes from.
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