In the UK we’ve just enjoyed a long four day weekend thanks to two bank holidays to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee.
My colleagues in the Netherlands will be enjoying a day off on the day this post goes out. Another national holiday.
It got me thinking; what countries have the most national holidays? And what is the economic impact of this time off?
Results
National Holidays by Country
| Country | Number of public holidays |
|---|---|
| Mexico | 8 |
| Taiwan | 9 |
| Brazil | 9 |
| … | … |
| Iran | 26 |
| Nepal | 30 |
| Myanmar | 32 |
The average number of national holidays across the 67 countries considered is 15. Myanmar has 32 — that’s more than one month of holidays!
National Holiday and affect on productivity
| Country | Number of public holidays | Lost GDP per day (billions) at 100% downtime | Lost GDP per day (billions) at 50% downtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 11 | 59.15 | 29.58 |
| Japan | 16 | 14.51 | 7.26 |
| Germany | 13 | 10.81 | 5.41 |
| … | … | … | … |
| Kosovo | 11 | 0.022 | 0.011 |
| Liechtenstein | 22 | 0.020 | 0.010 |
| Fiji | 10 | 0.012 | 0.006 |
Here the figures assume two scenarios
- that during a lost day to a national holiday, output is stopped completely (downtime = 100%) — which is obviously not the case
- output is reduced by 50% — probably more accurate
If we assume output drops by 50% on a national holiday, the US still forfeits over $29.5 billion per day! Assuming all national holidays equate to working days off, thats over $325 billion of potential output being lost!
National Holiday and working hours
Actual employment rates are hard to measure (unemployment rate in many countries only captures those of working age seeking a job — not those intentionally unemployed). That being said, it gives us a figure to go off to estimate lost working hours.
Similarly, not all jobs will be 8 hours (what I’ve assumed), nor will all workers get national holidays off.
| Country | Number of public holidays | Lost working hours (assumes ave 8 hrs) |
|---|---|---|
| India | 21 | 230217120000 |
| Indonesia | 16 | 30561984000 |
| Bangladesh | 22 | 28552392000 |
| … | … | … |
| Estonia | 10 | 102327280 |
| Fiji | 10 | 67782400 |
| Liechtenstein | 22 | 6407104 |
In the worst case, that’s two hundred thirty billion two hundred seventeen million one hundred twenty thousand (230,217,120,000) working hours Indians collectively enjoy on national holidays. This is definitely an over-estimate of actual hours, but assuming 50% of this assumption gives a total 115 billion national holiday hours for workers. This equates to about $80 billion in GDP (assuming a 50% reduction in output on these days).
And finally…
As you already know, this post is nowhere near accurate. I am a proponent for more downtime not less. In many studies, a shorter working week produces the same level output, therefore enjoy your holidays everyone!
Improvements
I compiled an incomplete list of national holidays by country so an obvious improvement would be to obtain a more comprehensive (and validated list). I’ve also made some huge assumptions, (1 national holiday is equal to 1 day off work, 8 hour working day, etc).
tl;dr
I estimate that Indians collectively enjoy over 115 billion national holiday hours (21 national holidays) resulting in an estimate $80 billion USD hit to the countries GDP.