Visualizing Annual Working Hours in OECD Countries

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Visualizing Annual Working Hours in OECD Countries

Comparing the number of hours people work in different countries can provide insight into cultural work norms, economic productivity, and even labor laws.

With this in mind, we’ve ranked OECD countries (plus a few others) based on their average annual hours worked. Note that this data includes both full-time and part-time workers.

Data and Highlights

The data we sourced from OECD is listed in the table below. All figures are as of 2021 (latest available), with the exception of Colombia, Russia, and Türkiye which are as of 2020.

Country	Average annual hours worked
Mexico	2,128
Costa Rica	2,073
Colombia	1,964
Chile	1,916
South Korea	1,910
Malta*	1,882
Russia*	1,874
Greece	1,872
Romania*	1,838
Croatia*	1,835
Poland	1,830
United States	1,791
Ireland	1,775
Estonia	1,767
Czech Republic	1,753
Israel	1,753
Cyprus*	1,745
New Zealand	1,730
OECD average	1,716
Hungary	1,697
Australia	1,694
Canada	1,685
Italy	1,669
Portugal	1,649
Spain	1,641
Lithuania	1,620
Bulgaria*	1,619
Japan	1,607
Latvia	1,601
Slovenia	1,596
Slovakia	1,583
Türkiye	1,572
Switzerland	1,533
Finland	1,518
United Kingdom	1,497
Belgium	1,493
France	1,490
Sweden	1,444
Austria	1,442
Iceland	1,433
Norway	1,427
Netherlands	1,417
Luxembourg	1,382
Denmark	1,363
Germany	1,349

*Non-OECD country

At the top is Mexico, where the average worker clocks over 2,000 hours per year. This reflects the country’s labor dynamics, which typically involves a six-day workweek. For context, 2,137 hours is equal to 267 eight-hour workdays.

The only other country to surpass 2,000 annual hours worked per worker is Costa Rica, which frequently tops the World Economic Forum’s Happy Planet Index (HPI). The HPI is a measure of wellbeing, life expectancy, and ecological footprint.

Looking at the other end of the list, the two countries that work the fewest hours are Germany and Denmark. This is reflective of the strong labor laws in these countries as well as their emphasis on work-life balance.

For example, the German Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz) states that daily hours of work may not exceed eight hours. Days can be extended to 10 hours, but only if it averages out to eight hours per working day over a six-month period.

Working fewer hours doesn’t mean that a country is becoming less productive, though. Germany is known for its high value industries like automotive and pharmaceuticals, where robotics and other technologies can greatly enhance productivity.

This is supported by GDP per capita, in which Germany has grown substantially since 2000.

Limitations of this Data

A limitation of this dataset is that it aggregates both full-time and part-time workers. This means that in a country like Japan, where almost 40% of the workforce is non-regular (part-time, contract, etc.), the average figure could be skewed downwards.

Japan is known for its grueling office culture, and it’s likely that many workers are logging significantly more hours than the 1,607 figure reported.

If you enjoy country comparisons like these, consider taking a look at our ranking of cities with the best work-life balance.

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