Can More Vacation Time Boost Productivity? An Analysis Across 30 Countries

By Leanne Tan. in Culture. Updated on March 22, 2024.

Japan has been in the spotlight for considering a law that would mandate its hard-working citizens to take vacations. This move is seen as an attempt to rejuvenate its economy after years of little to no growth, showcasing the various factors pushing towards such a significant policy shift.

But does granting more vacation days truly lead to greater productivity?

The internet is rife with articles (including one from our own website) advocating that less work leads to more productivity. However, these claims often lack comprehensive data or focus too narrowly on a single country. To provide a broader perspective, we decided to delve deeper into this topic.

Our Research Approach

Amidst discussions on productivity, Switzerland is frequently cited as the pinnacle of efficiency according to the Global Competitiveness Report. This report relies on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), described as “an appropriate estimate of the level of productivity and competitiveness of an economy.”

Thus, a country’s position on this index is indicative of its productivity levels.

We selected the top 30 countries from the Global Competitiveness Report for our analysis, comparing the following data points:

average working hours per week
minimum annual leave mandated by law
days of parental leave allocated for each country
parental leave mandated by law

Working Hours and Leaves By Countries

Country	Working hrs per Week	Minimum Mandated Annual Leave (days)	Paid Public Holidays	Paid Vacation Days	Parental leave
(1) Switzerland	30 hrs*	20 days	N/A	20 days	14 weeks
(2) Singapore	40 hrs	8-14 days	11 days	7 days	16 weeks
(3) United States	34 hrs*	0 days; 6-20 days (doe)	0 days	0 days	0 days
(4) Finland	32 hrs*	30 days	9 days	25 days	15 weeks
(5) Germany	27 hrs*	24 days	10-14 days (depending on state)	20 days	14 weeks
(6) Japan	33 hrs*	10 days; +1 day off for each yos (max: 20 days)	N/A	10 days	14 weeks
(7) Hong Kong	40 hrs	7-14 days (depending yos)	N/A	7 days	10 weeks
(8) Netherlands	27 hrs*	20 days	10 days	20 days	16 weeks
(9) United Kingdom	32 hrs*	28 days	8 days (9 for Scotland)	28 days	39 weeks
(10) Sweden	31 hrs*	25 days	N/A	25 days	480 days
(11) Norway	27 hrs*	25 days	2 days	21 days	56 or 46 weeks
(12) United Arab Emirates	40 hrs	2 days/month for 1st year; 30 days for > 1 yos	10 days	25 days	45 days
(13) Denmark	27 hrs*	30 days	9 days	25 days	52 weeks
(14) Taiwan	40 hrs	7-30 days (dependent on yos)	25 days	7 days	8 weeks
(15) Canada	33 hrs*	10 days	5-10 days (depending on province)	10 days	50 weeks
(16) Qatar	40 hrs	15-20 days	10 days	15 days	50 days
(17) New Zealand	34 hrs*	20 days	11 days	20 days	14 weeks
(18) Belgium	30 hrs*	20-24 days (dependent on working days a week)	10 days	20 days	15 weeks
(19) Luxembourg	32 hrs*	25 days (extra 6 days of for workers with disabilities)	10 days	25 days	16 weeks
(20) Malaysia	40 hrs	8-16 days (depending on yos)	19 days	7 days	60 days
(21) Austria	31 hrs*	30-36 days (dependent on yos)	13 days	30/35 days	16 weeks
(22) Australia	32 hrs*	20 days (25 days for shiftworkers)	9-11 days	20 days	18 weeks
(23) France	29 hrs*	30 days (extra 22 days for > 35 working hrs/week)	1 day	25 days	16 weeks; 26 weeks for third child.
(24) Saudi Arabia	48 hrs	21-30 days (dependent on yos)	10 days	15 days	10 weeks
(25) Ireland	35 hrs*	20 days	9 days	20 days	26 weeks
(26) South Korea	42 hrs*	15-25 days (dependent on yos)	N/A	15 days	90 days
(27) Israel	36 hrs*	10-28 days (dependent on yos)	N/A	10 days	14 weeks
(28) China	44 hrs	5-15 days (dependent on yos)	11 days	5 days	98 days
(29) Estonia	36 hrs*	28 days (dependent on contract)	N/A	20 days	140 days (extra 2 wks for medical complications)
(30) Iceland	33 hrs*	24 days	12 days	24 days	90 days

*doe – depending on employer
*yos – year of service

Sources:

Top 30 Most Competitive Countries, Global Competitive Report
List of statutory minimum employment leave by country, Wikipedia
*Average annual hrs actually worked per worker, OECD
Workweek and weekend, Wikipedia
Parental leave, Wikipedia

Leaderboard

Now, we understand that the table above is contains a truckload of data and who has the vacation time to go through the data cell by cell, right? In this section we will just give you the summary for each category, in what we will call the leaderboards.

Let’s start with the working hours in a week.

Countries With The Most Working Hours:

48 hrs – Saudi Arabia
44 hrs – China
42 hrs – South Korea
40 hrs – Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates,
36 hrs – Israel, Estonia

Countries With The Least Working Hours:

27 hrs – Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark
29 hrs – France
30 hrs – Switzerland, Belgium
31 hrs – Sweden, Austria
32 hrs – Luxembourg, Australia

If you are looking for the country that tops the chart in highest number of mandated annual leave, check this out:

Countries With The Most Annual Leave (days):

30 days – Finland, France, Denmark, Austria
28 days – United Kingdom, Estonia
24 days – Germany, Iceland
25 days – Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg
21 days – Saudi Arabia

Countries With The Least Annual Leave (days):

0 days – United States
5 days – China
7 days – Taiwan, Hong Kong
8 days – Singapore, Malaysia
10 days – Israel, Canada, Japan

If you wonder if vacation days actually have the influence on productivity in the workplace, then these are the leaderboards you want to see.

Countries With The Most Paid Vacation Days:

30 days – Austria
28 days – United Kingdom
25 days – Finland, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Luxembourg, France
24 days – Iceland
21 days – Norway

Countries With The Least Paid Vacation Days:

0 days – United States
5 days – China
7 days – Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia
10 days – Japan, Canada, Israel
15 days – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea

Parental leave, a controversial topic for many countries including the United States. Here are the countries that give parents a whole lot of time off, and those that didn’t.

Countries With The Longest Parental Leave:

480 days – Sweden
56 weeks – Norway
52 weeks – Denmark
50 weeks – Canada
26 weeks – Ireland

Countries With The Shortest Parental Leave:

45 days – United Arab Emirates
50 days – Qatar
8 weeks – Taiwan
60 days – Malaysia
10 weeks – Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia

Lastly, here are the leaderboards on paid public holidays, also known as holidays that you get to take a break while still on a payroll.

Countries With The Most Paid Public Holidays:

25 days – Taiwan
19 days – Malaysia
13 days – Austria
12 days – Iceland
11 days – Singapore

Countries With The Least Paid Public Holidays:

0 days – United States
1 day – France
2 days – Norway
5 days – Canada
8 days – United Kingdom

Visual Aid

For those who prefer a quick summary, we’ve created an infographic with the help of Piktochart to visually present the data discussed in this post.

Vacation Time vs Productivity Infographic

Editor’s note: You can find and use this infographic for free at Piktochart.

Conclusion

Although our approach may not be strictly scientific, the data doesn’t clearly show that more vacation days lead to increased productivity or competitiveness across countries. However, all the information is presented for you to examine and draw your own conclusions.

Note: This post was originally published on May 18, 2015.