How business days are counted
A business day (or working day) is any day a typical office is open — Monday through Friday — that is not a public holiday. To count the working days between two dates we walk through every calendar day in the range and keep only the ones that are neither a weekend nor a public holiday.
Two things are always excluded:
- Weekends — every Saturday and Sunday in the range.
- Public holidays — official holidays for the country you select. A holiday only reduces the count if it lands on a weekday; a holiday that falls on a weekend is already removed as a weekend.
The "include end date" option decides whether the final date itself is part of the range. Leave it off to count the gap between the dates; turn it on to count both endpoints inclusively.
Holidays included by country
Holiday dates are computed for any year directly in your browser, so the tool works for past and future dates without a lookup table.
- United States (federal): New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Fixed-date holidays use the federal "observed" rule — a Saturday holiday is observed on the Friday before and a Sunday holiday on the Monday after.
- United Kingdom (England & Wales): New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the Early May and Spring bank holidays, the Summer bank holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Substitute weekdays are added when New Year, Christmas or Boxing Day fall on a weekend.
- Canada (federal): New Year's Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Business days in a typical year
As a rough planning figure, a full year holds about 250–252 working days once weekends and public holidays are removed. The exact total shifts slightly by country and year:
| Country | Approx. working days per year |
|---|---|
| United States | ~251 |
| United Kingdom | ~253 |
| Canada | ~251 |
The exact number depends on the year and on which holidays land on a weekend (a holiday on a Saturday or Sunday does not subtract an extra working day).
Frequently asked questions
- How many working days are between two dates?
- Pick a start date, an end date and a country, and the calculator counts the weekdays in the range minus any public holidays that land on a weekday. The big number at the top is your working-day total, and the list below shows exactly which holidays were excluded.
- Are weekends and public holidays excluded?
- Yes — both. Saturdays and Sundays are never counted, and public holidays for the country you choose are removed too. You can see the weekend count and the holiday count broken out in the results.
- How many business days are in a year?
- Roughly 250–252 in the US, and a similar figure for the UK and Canada. The precise total varies by year and country depending on how many holidays fall on weekdays versus weekends.
- Which holidays does this calculator include?
- US federal holidays, UK (England & Wales) bank holidays, and Canadian federal holidays. Each date is generated from the official rules per year in your browser, so the tool covers past and future years without a fixed lookup table.
- How do I add 10 business days to a date?
- Use the "Add business days" tool: enter your start date, type 10 in the business-days field, and pick a country. The result skips weekends and holidays. Enter a negative number to count backwards instead.
- Do public holidays that fall on a weekend still count?
- A holiday landing on a Saturday or Sunday is already excluded as a weekend, so it does not subtract an extra day. Where a country grants an observed or substitute weekday (for example a Monday in lieu), that substitute day is treated as the holiday and is excluded instead.
- Why might my count differ from my employer's?
- Many organisations add company-specific days off, regional holidays, or half-days that a general calculator can't know about. If your employer observes extra holidays or different regional dates, adjust the total accordingly.