How Many Business Days Are in a Year?

A standard calendar year has either 365 or 366 days. Once you remove weekends, you are left with 260 or 261 weekdays. Subtract the US federal holidays that fall on those weekdays and the typical result is between 249 and 252 business days per year. The exact number shifts annually because the calendar rotates: holidays and weekends land on different days each year.

How the Count Is Calculated

There are 52 full weeks in a year, which accounts for 104 weekend days (52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays). A non-leap year has one extra day beyond those 52 weeks; a leap year has two. Depending on which day of the week January 1 falls on, you end up with either 260 or 261 weekdays.

From that weekday total, you subtract the 11 US federal holidays that fall on weekdays. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, it is typically observed on Friday. When it falls on a Sunday, it is observed on Monday. In either case, the observed holiday removes one weekday from the working count.

Business Day Counts by Year

All three years land at 250 business days, though the path to that number differs. Holiday placement varies enough year to year that the count can range from 249 to 252 depending on how the calendar falls.

Why This Number Matters

Annual business day counts come up in a few practical contexts. Hourly billing across a full year, production scheduling, capacity planning, and annualized SLA calculations all benefit from knowing exactly how many working days a given year contains. A difference of two or three business days in a year is small in percentage terms, but for high-volume operations it can represent meaningful variance in throughput or billing.

For detailed month-by-month breakdowns, see the Business Days in a Month guide.

Calculating Business Days for a Custom Period

If you need the business day count for a period other than a full calendar year, such as a fiscal year, a project timeline, or a contract term, use the Business Day Calculator to get an exact count between any two dates.

FAQ

How many business days are in a year?

A standard year has 260 or 261 weekdays. After subtracting the 11 US federal holidays that fall on weekdays, most years have between 249 and 252 business days. The exact count depends on which days of the week holidays land on.

Why does the number change from year to year?

Because the calendar shifts by one or two days each year (two days in a leap year), weekends and holidays fall on different days. A holiday that falls on a Saturday one year is observed on Friday, reducing the business day count; the next year it might fall on a Sunday and be observed on Monday instead.

How many business days are in 2026?

2026 has 250 business days, accounting for all 11 US federal holidays falling on weekdays.