If you ever wondered how to get the longest holidays while taking the least amount of time off, consider public holidays that can come in handy to stretch out that break. The savings platform CupoNation Australia has analysed the number of public holidays across 195 countries worldwide to find out where you can enjoy more paid time off and, hence, score the biggest number of holidays

The countries to work in for more holidays

Iran tops the ranking. Iranian workers are entitled to one month paid annual leave and 27 paid public holidays. 

Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Malaysia share the second place with 19 paid public holidays. Colombia comes third with 18 paid public holidays.

Norway and has the lowest in the world with only two paid public holidays.

Workers in the most European countries enjoy 10-14 paid public holidays a year. The UK is not so holiday minded, with only eight. Greece might have a reputation for being relaxed, but the numbers tell a different story, only four mandatory paid public holidays. 

11 days is an average number of paid public holidays across 195 countries worldwide.

Australia does pretty well

Overall Australian workers do pretty well with 10 paid public holidays which brings Australia to the 9th place in the global ranking alongside with Morocco, Qatar and Vietnam. Add on 20 days annual leave and take a month off from work a year.

The United States: zero paid vacation days

If you ever decide to take up a job in the United States, you will be in for a shock. Employers in the United States are not required to provide any vacation time and there are zero paid public holidays.

Higher salary means less public holidays

Yes, there is a negative correlation between average monthly salary and number of public holidays. It means that workers in the countries with the higher average income get less public holidays. Top 10 countries with the highest net salary in the world have only eight public holidays in average. 

About the study

The numbers of paid public holidays in 195 countries worldwide were collected from "Worldwide National Public Holidays for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020" report made by www.qppstudio.net. For countries with different number of public holidays observed in regions, we used the average number of public holidays in those countries across all regions.

The average net salaries were collected from Numbeo. 

The number of annual leave by country were collected from International Labour Organization Report. 

About CupoNation

CupoNation is a leading online savings platform present in 20 countries around the world. Our mission is to help online consumers save in their day to day spending and to make the most out of their budget. CupoNation was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Munich with offices in Paris, Madrid, Sao Paolo and Kuala Lumpur.