10 Countries with the Most Public Holidays in 2026

The world's most generous holiday calendars

Most countries observe between 8 and 15 public holidays each year. The OECD median sits at roughly 11 statutory days off, a figure that has barely shifted in three decades. But beyond the wealthy, secular democracies that dominate that average, a handful of nations operate calendars of an entirely different scale — stacking Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Christian, royal, and agricultural observances on top of one another to reach 25 or more public holidays in a single year.

The divide tends to track the OECD line. Western European and Anglophone economies cluster tightly around the average; non-OECD countries in South and South-East Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Latin America routinely exceed it. The reasons are rarely about leisure policy. They are about religious pluralism, lunar calendars that produce more annual events than the solar Gregorian one, monarchies that retain royal observances, and Mondayisation rules that protect the count when a holiday lands on a weekend.

This is the ranked list of the ten countries with the most national public holidays in 2026, with the cultural and calendrical reasons behind each one.

The Top 10

The numbers are approximate where calendars include movable Islamic or Buddhist dates that depend on lunar sighting, and where governments routinely gazette additional one-off "bridge" days late in the preceding year.

Country-by-country: why so many?

1. Cambodia — ~28 days

Cambodia consistently tops the global ranking, and 2026 is no exception. The Cambodian calendar layers a Theravada Buddhist religious year on top of an active constitutional monarchy and a deep-rooted agricultural cycle.

The biggest single block is Khmer New Year (Choul Chnam Thmey), a three-day festival in mid-April marking the end of the harvest season. Add Visak Bochea (the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana), Meak Bochea, Pchum Ben (the 15-day ancestor festival, of which two are public holidays), and Bon Om Touk (the three-day Water Festival on the Tonle Sap), and the Buddhist component alone exceeds the entire holiday calendar of most European states.

Royal observances add several more: the King's Birthday, the Queen Mother's Birthday, the Anniversary of the King's Coronation, and Constitution Day. Civic holidays — Independence Day, Victory over Genocide Day, International Labour Day, and Human Rights Day — round out a calendar that, by some counts, reaches 28 separate observances.

2. Iran — ~26 days

Iran's calendar is a unique fusion of two parallel systems. The civic calendar is the Solar Hijri (Persian) calendar, which sets the dates of Nowruz — the Persian New Year — and its associated holidays. The religious calendar is the lunar Islamic Hijri, which determines the dates of Shia observances such as Tasua, Ashura, Arbaeen, and the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays.

Nowruz alone accounts for four consecutive public holidays at the spring equinox, and the broader two-week Nowruz period sees most of the country effectively shut down. The Shia Islamic component contributes a further ten or so observances, including the martyrdom anniversaries of the Twelve Imams and key dates from the Karbala narrative. Add the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (11 February) and the death of Ayatollah Khomeini (4 June), and Iran's annual total reaches roughly 26 days.

3. Myanmar — ~25 days

Myanmar's holiday calendar is shaped by Theravada Buddhism and a distinctive solar New Year. Thingyan, the Burmese water festival, runs for four to five consecutive days in mid-April and is the nation's most important secular-religious event. Together with Burmese New Year's Day the following day, it produces a single week-long break that anchors the calendar.

Buddhist full-moon days — Tabaung, Kason, Waso, Thadingyut, and Tazaungdaing — add another five public holidays, each tied to events in the life of the Buddha or to the monsoon-season Vassa retreat. Civic holidays include Independence Day (4 January), Union Day, Peasants' Day, Armed Forces Day, and Martyrs' Day. The total reaches roughly 25 statutory days.

4. Sri Lanka — ~25 days

Sri Lanka's count is a remarkable case of religious co-existence. The country recognises holidays from four major faiths — Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam — and treats each as a national, not a community, observance.

The Buddhist contribution is unique in the world: every full moon day is a public holiday, known as a Poya day. That alone accounts for 12 statutory days in a typical year. Layer on Sinhala and Tamil New Year (a two-day spring festival shared by both communities), Thai Pongal, Deepavali, Good Friday, Christmas, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and the Prophet's Birthday, plus Independence Day and May Day, and the calendar reaches roughly 25 days.

5. India (gazetted) — 17 days

India's calendar is famously generous, but the headline number depends on which list you read. The Government of India publishes three gazetted public holidays that apply universally — Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti — plus 14 additional gazetted holidays for central government offices, drawn from a longer pool of religious and regional observances. The full gazetted count is therefore 17 days.

State governments add their own. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, and Maharashtra each gazette upwards of 20 state-level holidays, meaning a worker in Chennai or Kolkata may experience over 25 non-working days annually once state observances are layered on. The driver is the country's religious pluralism: Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi festivals are all officially recognised, with regional and linguistic festivals on top.

6. Colombia — 18 days

Colombia is the holiday champion of Latin America, with 18 statutory public holidays in 2026. The Catholic calendar contributes the bulk — Epiphany, Saint Joseph's Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Ascension Day, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas — but the count is preserved by a distinctive law.

Under the Ley Emiliani of 1983, most movable Catholic feasts are shifted to the following Monday to create long weekends and avoid mid-week disruption. The result is an unusually high number of three-day weekends — Colombians refer to them as puentes (bridges) — and a holiday count that does not erode when a date falls on a weekend.

7. Lebanon — 17 days

Lebanon's confessional system gives it one of the most religiously balanced public-holiday calendars in the world. The state recognises Christian observances (Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Monday for both Catholic and Orthodox calendars, the Assumption, the Feast of Saint Maron), Sunni and Shia Islamic observances (Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Islamic New Year, Ashura, the Prophet's Birthday), and the Annunciation — observed jointly by Christians and Muslims as a national day of Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Civic dates — Independence Day, Martyrs' Day, Liberation Day, and Labour Day — bring the total to 17. The deliberate inclusion of two Easter dates and observances from multiple Islamic schools is a feature, not an oversight: it reflects the country's power-sharing constitution.

8. Argentina — 16 days

Argentina maintains one of the highest holiday counts in the Americas through a mix of Catholic feasts, patriotic days, and a generous policy of declaring bridge days (días puente) as one-off statutory holidays. The fixed core includes New Year's Day, Carnival (two days), Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, Veterans' Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Labour Day, May Revolution Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, the Death of San Martín, the Day of Cultural Diversity, the Day of National Sovereignty, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas.

The government additionally gazettes one or two non-working tourism days each year — typically a Monday or Friday adjacent to an existing holiday — pushing the practical total to around 16.

9. Japan — 16 days

Japan's holiday calendar is the highest in the OECD, designed to spread time off across all four seasons. It blends imperial observances (the Emperor's Birthday, Constitution Memorial Day, National Foundation Day), civic dates (Coming-of-Age Day, Showa Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day, Marine Day, Mountain Day, Respect-for-the-Aged Day, Sports Day, Culture Day, Labour Thanksgiving Day), and two astronomical holidays — the Vernal Equinox Day and the Autumnal Equinox Day — whose precise dates are set by the National Astronomical Observatory.

The clustering of holidays produces three iconic breaks: Golden Week in late April and early May, Obon in mid-August (culturally observed but not statutory), and the New Year period. Japanese law also includes a "substitute holiday" rule: if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday becomes a non-working day, protecting the count.

10. Thailand — 16 days

Thailand rounds out the top ten with a calendar built on three pillars. Theravada Buddhism contributes Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha, Asarnha Bucha, and the start of Buddhist Lent (Khao Phansa). The monarchy contributes the King's Birthday, the Queen's Birthday, Coronation Day, Chakri Memorial Day, the late King Bhumibol's Birthday (Father's Day), and King Bhumibol Memorial Day. The agricultural and civic calendar contributes Songkran (the Thai New Year and water festival, three days), Labour Day, Constitution Day, and New Year's Eve.

Like Japan, Thailand operates a Monday-substitution rule for holidays falling on a weekend, and like Argentina the government routinely gazettes special non-working days to encourage domestic tourism. The published 2026 count is 16 days, with one or two additional special days likely to be added in-year.

The Sri Lanka Poya phenomenon

No country observes a religious calendar quite like Sri Lanka. Under the Holidays Act, every full moon day of the lunar year is designated a Poya day and observed as a national public holiday. There are typically 12 Poya days in a Gregorian year (occasionally 13 when a lunar month bridges the calendar).

Each Poya commemorates a distinct event in the life of the Buddha or in the early history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka:

• Duruthu Poya (January) — the Buddha's first visit to Sri Lanka
• Navam Poya (February) — the appointment of the chief disciples
• Medin Poya (March) — the Buddha's return to his father's palace
• Bak Poya (April) — his second visit to the island
• Vesak Poya (May) — birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana
• Poson Poya (June) — the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka by Mahinda
• Esala Poya (July) — the first sermon and the start of Vassa
• Nikini Poya (August) — the First Buddhist Council
• Binara Poya (September) — the Buddha's visit to Tavatimsa heaven
• Vap Poya (October) — the end of Vassa
• Il Poya (November) — the dispatch of the first 60 missionaries
• Unduvap Poya (December) — the arrival of the sacred Bodhi tree sapling

On Poya days, the sale of alcohol and meat is prohibited by law, and entertainment venues operate restricted hours. The pattern dates to the 8th century but was codified in modern statute in 1971.

Multi-religious nations: the diversity dividend

A shared feature of the highest-ranked countries is religious pluralism. Where a state recognises holidays from multiple faith traditions, the calendar grows accordingly.

India is the canonical example. The gazetted list includes Hindu Diwali, Holi, and Janmashtami; Muslim Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Milad un-Nabi; Sikh Guru Nanak Jayanti; Christian Christmas and Good Friday; Jain Mahavir Jayanti; and Buddhist Buddha Purnima. Lebanon does the same for its Christian and Muslim communities.

Honourable mentions belong to two South-East Asian states that are not in the top ten but operate genuinely cross-cultural calendars:

• Singapore — 12 public holidays. A modest count by the standards above, but every major faith is represented: Chinese New Year (two days), Hari Raya Puasa, Hari Raya Haji, Vesak Day, Deepavali, Christmas, Good Friday.
• Malaysia — 14 public holidays at federal level, with state-level totals running considerably higher. The calendar covers Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Aidiladha, Wesak Day, Deepavali, Chinese New Year, Christmas, the King's Birthday, Merdeka Day, and Malaysia Day.

In both countries the principle is the same: a state holiday for each major community is treated as a tool of social cohesion, not a generosity to any single group.

The Mondayisation effect

Holiday counts are shaped not only by what is in the calendar but by what happens when a fixed date falls on a weekend. Two distinct philosophies divide the world.

Mondayisation countries shift weekend-falling holidays to the following Monday (or occasionally the preceding Friday) to preserve the day off:

• United Kingdom — substitute days for Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day
• Australia and New Zealand — substitute days for almost all national holidays
• Canada — substitute days for Canada Day, Christmas, and Boxing Day
• Argentina and Colombia — Mondayisation of most movable Catholic feasts
• Japan and Thailand — Monday-substitution rules embedded in statute

In these countries, a calendar of 11 holidays reliably produces 11 days off per year regardless of the weekday pattern.

Non-Mondayisation countries observe holidays only on their fixed date. If the date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the holiday is "lost":

• Germany — no substitute days at all; in years where multiple holidays fall on weekends, working time rises significantly
• France — same; the running joke is that the calendar is "generous in some years and miserly in others"
• Mexico — only a small number of holidays are Mondayised under the Ley Federal del Trabajo
• United States — federal Monday holidays are fixed by date-of-month rules, but Christmas and the Fourth of July are not substituted

The distinction explains why two countries with similar gazetted totals can produce very different lived experiences across a five-year span.

Where the world fits the average

Most G20 economies sit firmly in the middle of the global distribution. The OECD median is roughly 11 statutory public holidays, and the spread is narrow:

• Germany: 9–13 (state-dependent; Bavaria highest)
• France: 11
• Italy: 12
• Spain: 14 (national + regional)
• United Kingdom: 8 (England and Wales)
• United States: 11 federal
• Canada: 9 federal, more provincially
• Australia: 7 national + state
• South Korea: 15
• Brazil: 12
• South Africa: 12

The lowest counts in the developed world belong to Mexico (7) and the Netherlands (8), reflecting cultural traditions that treat time off as primarily an employment-contract matter rather than a statutory entitlement.

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Key Facts