Statizoid

Annual working hours per person employed by country

Regular hours worked by full-time and part-time workers, paid and unpaid overtime, hours worked in additional jobs, and time not worked because of public holidays, annual paid leave, strikes and labour disputes, and other reasons.

Countries reporting
35
Highest
2,209 Hours
South Africa
Lowest
1,355 Hours
Germany
Median
1,740 Hours
Years covered
48
1970–2017
Data points
1,460

What the numbers show

Annual working hours per person employed is currently reported for 35 countries. The highest value is 2,209 Hours in South Africa; the lowest is 1,355 Hours in Germany.

The median across all reporting countries is 1,740 Hours, and the mean is 1,753 Hours.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 2.

Over the past decade 6 countries rose and 29 fell. The largest increase was in Sweden (up 1.7%), and the largest decrease in Hungary (down 11.3%).

Annual working hours per person employed: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 South Africa 2,209 Hours 2014 down 5.7% falling
2 Mexico 2,143 Hours 2016 up 0.1% flat
3 Poland 2,050 Hours 2016 down 1.5% falling
4 Greece 2,030 Hours 2016 down 4.5% flat
5 Chile 1,974 Hours 2016 down 8.8% falling
5 Russia 1,974 Hours 2016 down 1.2% flat
7 Israel 1,921 Hours 2016 down 1.6% flat
8 Latvia 1,902 Hours 2016 down 0.2% flat
9 Lithuania 1,885 Hours 2016 up 0.6% rising
10 Iceland 1,883 Hours 2016 down 3.8% falling
11 Portugal 1,865 Hours 2016 down 1.0% falling
12 Estonia 1,855 Hours 2016 down 7.3% falling
13 Turkey 1,832 Hours 2016 down 5.8% falling
14 Czechia 1,778 Hours 2016 down 1.2% falling
15 Hungary 1,759 Hours 2016 down 11.3% falling
16 New Zealand 1,752 Hours 2016 down 2.4% falling
17 United States 1,742 Hours 2016 down 0.6% flat
18 Slovakia 1,740 Hours 2016 down 1.9% flat
20 Australia 1,731 Hours 2016 down 3.9% flat
21 Italy 1,725 Hours 2016 down 4.8% falling
22 Japan 1,713 Hours 2016 down 4.0% falling
23 Canada 1,703 Hours 2016 down 2.4% falling
24 Spain 1,701 Hours 2016 down 0.8% falling
25 United Kingdom 1,673 Hours 2016 up 0.4% falling
26 Slovenia 1,667 Hours 2016 down 0.0% flat
27 Finland 1,635 Hours 2016 down 3.4% falling
28 Sweden 1,626 Hours 2016 up 1.7% flat
29 Austria 1,609 Hours 2016 down 7.3% falling
30 Switzerland 1,590 Hours 2016 down 3.6% falling
31 Belgium 1,546 Hours 2016 down 1.7% falling
33 France 1,503 Hours 2016 down 0.5% falling
34 Netherlands 1,437 Hours 2016 up 0.4% falling
35 Norway 1,429 Hours 2016 up 0.3% falling
36 Denmark 1,409 Hours 2016 down 3.2% falling
37 Germany 1,355 Hours 2017 down 4.8% falling

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

  • G7 1,664 Hours

About this data

Indicator
Annual working hours per person employed
Unit
Hours
Source
OECD (2017) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
38 places, 1,460 data points, 1970–2017
Last refreshed

Regular hours worked by full-time and part-time workers, paid and unpaid overtime, hours worked in additional jobs, and time not worked because of public holidays, annual paid leave, strikes and labour disputes, and other reasons.