Annual Working Hours in Europe

How many hours do Europeans work each year on average?

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A while ago, we took a look at how many hours a week Europeans work on average. While that gives us a good look at the average work week, it doesn’t take into account public holidays and paid leave. On this map, we can see the total average hours worked per year. This gives us a better view at the hours worked when paid leave is taken into account.

Not too surprisingly, there is a lot of overlap with the average hours worked per week. The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland have the lowest average number of working hours again. The share of part-time workers is one of the major reasons for this, especially in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Workers in Greece, Poland and Russia have by far the longest annual working hours.

Keep in mind that the number of hours worked doesn’t necessarily mean more economic output. As we can see on this map of labour productivity, workers in countries like Denmark, Switzerland and Norway create a much higher GDP output in one hour of work. Working more hours, doesn’t correlate with more output. Russian workers are third in Europe when it comes to the average annual hours worked, but are also the second least productive workers in Europe when looking at their GDP output per hour worked.

Data for this map comes from the University of Groningen. Curious about the annual working hours in Asia, check out this map.