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Countries ranked by usual weekly working hours

Greece ranks first in this current lowest-to-highest comparison at 38.5 h/week.

JSON Markdown

Average usual weekly hours of full-time employees in their main job, from the Eurostat labour force survey and the OECD for destinations outside it. It is what full-time work usually takes, not the legal limit, and it says nothing about overtime pay.

Items compared
36
Countries represented
36
Last checked
2026-09-19

Source-backed answers

Compare each answer with its unit and checked date; the complete source ledger is below.

Showing all 36 rows

Original rankCountryPublished valueSource and scope
1Greece38.5 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
2Ireland38.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
3Cyprus39.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
4Latvia39.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
5Austria39.8 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
6Slovenia39.8 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
7Netherlands39.9 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
8Iceland40.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
9Italy40.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
10Romania40.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
11Sweden40.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
12Switzerland40.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
13Belgium40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
14Croatia40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
15Denmark40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
16Malta40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
17Norway40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
18Poland40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
19Portugal40.1 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
20Czechia40.2 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
21France40.2 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
22Hungary40.2 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
23Spain40.2 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
24Bulgaria40.3 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
25Estonia40.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
26United Kingdom40.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
27Germany40.8 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
28Australia40.9 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
29United States41.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
30Finland41.4 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
31Slovakia41.6 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
32New Zealand41.7 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
33Luxembourg42.0 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
34Lithuania42.3 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2024-12-31
35South Korea43.4 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
36Japan44.2 h/weekhours/week2026-09-19
Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31

What the numbers say

  • Greece leads at 38.5 hours/week.
  • Japan sits at the other end with 44.21 hours/week.
  • The middle of this ranking is 40.1 hours/week, across 36 places that publish the metric.
  • The spread between first and last is 5.71 hours/week.

Quick answer

What does Countries ranked by usual weekly working hours show?

Greece ranks first in this current lowest-to-highest comparison at 38.5 h/week.

How this list is built

Require all component metrics for the same country, keep their source records, calculate usual_weekly_hours_full_time, then sort ascending.

  • The report states exactly which components are included.
  • Application and filing fees are excluded.
Rows
36 countries
Geographic grain
country
Observation period
2024-12-31 to 2025-12-31
Last checked
2026-09-19
With an official source link
36 of 36

Cite this page

Open a format to select or copy this ImmigrationDB compilation citation. The native disclosure and text fallback work without JavaScript.

APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, September 29). Countries ranked by usual weekly working hours [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 9917e63ad2c45889eb2f40afd13b8159]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-weekly-working-hours/ Retrieved 2026-09-29. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_countries-ranked-by-usual-weekly-working-hours_1236e8030c35,
  author = {ImmigrationDB},
  title = {Countries ranked by usual weekly working hours},
  publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-09-29},
  version = {9917e63ad2c45889eb2f40afd13b8159},
  url = {https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-weekly-working-hours/},
  note = {Retrieved 2026-09-29. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}
Markdown citation
[Countries ranked by usual weekly working hours](https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-weekly-working-hours/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 9917e63ad2c45889eb2f40afd13b8159; retrieved 2026-09-29; built 2026-09-29.

This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.

Sources

  1. Eurostat lfsta_ewhuis — Usual weekly hours of work of full-time employees (sex total, 15-64, employees, main job)Eurostat lfsta_ewhuis — Usual weekly hours of work of full-time employees (sex total, 15-64, employees, main job) · Checked 2026-09-19
  2. OECD — Average usual weekly hours worked on the main job, full-time employeesOECD — Average usual weekly hours worked on the main job, full-time employees · Checked 2026-09-19