This UK working days calculator counts the weekdays from a start date through an end date, and it can remove bank holidays. Both ends count when they are working days. The sample runs from 1 January 2026 through 31 December 2026 for England and Wales and excludes bank holidays. The headline is 253 working days. The year has 261 weekdays. Eight of them are bank holidays, and all eight fall on a weekday, so 261 minus 8 is 253.
The dates come from the GOV.UK bank-holidays list, retrieved on 27 October 2026. That list includes substitute days, so Boxing Day 2026, which falls on Saturday 26 December, is observed on Monday 28 December. Scotland’s list also includes Monday 15 June 2026, the World Cup bank holiday confirmed by the Scottish Government. England and Wales do not have that day. Northern Ireland’s list includes St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne. Local council holidays, school holidays, and a workplace shutdown are not removed. The list on this page covers 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028 only.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the start date and the end date. The sample is 2026-01-01 through 2026-12-31. If you reverse them, the calculator puts the earlier date first and says so.
- Choose England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. The bank holidays are not the same list.
- Leave “Exclude bank holidays” on if you want those dates removed. Choose “Count every weekday” if you want the 261 weekdays of 2026 with the holidays left in.
- Press Calculate. The headline is the working-day count. The lines under it show how many bank holidays were removed and name them when the list is short enough to print.
How UK working days are counted
The count is inclusive. A working day that stands alone is 1 working day, unless it is a bank holiday you asked to remove. Thursday 1 January 2026, on its own, is 0 working days in every part of the UK this page covers, because it is New Year’s Day. The days-between-dates calculator does not work this way. Its elapsed count from 1 January to 31 December 2026 is 364, which drops the end date and keeps the weekends. The US business-days page is inclusive too, but it removes US federal holidays and lands on 250 for the same year.
Weekends are Saturday and Sunday. They are never working days here, and a bank holiday is removed only when it falls on a weekday. The GOV.UK list already moves weekend Christmas and Boxing Day dates onto a substitute weekday, so this page does not invent a second substitute. In 2026, Christmas Day is Friday 25 December and the Boxing Day substitute is Monday 28 December. The Saturday and Sunday in between are weekend days either way. England and Wales therefore lose two weekdays at Christmas, not four.
England and Wales in 2026 lose eight weekdays: 1 January, Good Friday 3 April, Easter Monday 6 April, Early May on 4 May, Spring on 25 May, Summer on 31 August, Christmas Day, and 28 December. Scotland loses ten. It adds 2 January, the 15 June World Cup holiday, the summer holiday on 3 August rather than 31 August, and St Andrew’s Day on 30 November, and it does not have Easter Monday. The net against England is two extra weekdays removed, so Scotland’s 2026 headline is 251 working days, not 253. Northern Ireland also lands on 251. Against England it adds 17 March and 13 July, and it keeps Easter Monday and the 31 August summer holiday. Thirteen July is the substitute, because 12 July 2026 is a Sunday.
Leave the holidays in and the 2026 headline is 261 working days in every nation. The nation choice still prints, but nothing is subtracted. The same 261 is what the day-counter page states as the weekday total for the calendar year. This tool’s job is the further subtraction. A span that reaches outside 2025 through 2028 is rejected when holidays are excluded, because the stored list stops there. Counting every weekday is still allowed on a longer span, up to 50 years.
Formula
Working days = weekdays in the inclusive span − bank holidays that fall on those weekdays Weekdays are Monday to Friday Bank holidays are the GOV.UK observed dates for the nation you choose, 2025 through 2028 England and Wales, calendar year 2026: 261 weekdays − 8 bank holidays = 253 Scotland, calendar year 2026: 261 − 10 = 251, including 15 June Northern Ireland, calendar year 2026: 261 − 10 = 251, including 17 March and 13 July The same year with holidays left in: 261 2028 has 260 weekdays, not 261
Good Friday to Easter Monday 2026 is 3 April through 6 April. In England and Wales both Friday and Monday are bank holidays, the weekend is in the middle, and the working-day count is 0. In Scotland only the Friday is a bank holiday, so the Monday remains and the count is 1 working day. That is the cleanest way to see that Easter Monday is not a Scottish bank holiday on this list.
The week of 15 June 2026 through 19 June is Monday to Friday. Scotland removes the Monday as the World Cup bank holiday and counts 4 working days. England and Wales do not have that holiday, so the same five dates are 5 working days. A UK-wide project calendar that uses the England list will treat 15 June as a working day. A Scotland calendar will not. The Scottish Government’s bank-holiday page is the confirmation for that one-off Monday. It is not in the 2025 or 2027 Scotland lists stored here.
Worked UK working-day examples
The 2026 calendar year in each part of the UK
England and Wales, with bank holidays removed, is 253 working days. Eight holidays are named under the result, from New Year’s Day through the Boxing Day substitute. Scotland is 251, with ten holidays named, including 2 January, 15 June, and 30 November. Northern Ireland is 251, with ten holidays named, including 17 March and 13 July. All three counts start from 261 weekdays and 104 weekend days. The inclusive calendar count is 365. 2026 is not a leap year.
Turn the holiday switch off and each of those headlines becomes 261. The US business-days calculator, on the same dates with federal holidays removed, is 250, because it removes eleven federal holidays rather than eight bank holidays. The day counter’s 364 is a third number. None of the three is wrong. They are counting different sets.
Easter 2026, and the Scotland World Cup Monday
From Friday 3 April 2026 through Monday 6 April, England and Wales have 0 working days. Two bank holidays are removed and two weekend days sit between them. Scotland on the same dates has 1 working day, because Easter Monday is not on the Scotland list. Northern Ireland follows England and Wales at Easter and also has 0.
From Monday 15 June 2026 through Friday 19 June, Scotland has 4 working days and names the World Cup bank holiday. England and Wales have 5, and the holiday line says none were removed. If a contract defines “business days” as England and Wales bank holidays even for work done in Scotland, use the England list. The calculator cannot see the contract. It only sees the nation you choose.
2025, 2027, and the leap year 2028
The full years 2025 and 2027 also have 261 weekdays. England and Wales are 253 working days in each of those years, after 8 bank holidays. Scotland is 252 in both, after 9, because the 2026 World Cup Monday is not repeated. Northern Ireland is 251 in both, after 10. The substitute dates are already the dates in the GOV.UK list. In 2025, St Andrew’s Day is stored as 1 December, the Monday, rather than Sunday 30 November.
2028 has 260 weekdays, not 261. It is a leap year and 1 January is a Saturday, so the two extra days of the 366-day year are weekend days and the weekdays do not gain one. New Year’s Day is stored as Monday 3 January. England and Wales have 252 working days after 8 bank holidays. Scotland has 251 after 9. Northern Ireland has 250 after 10. A span that includes 2024, or 2029, is refused while the holiday switch is on. The list this page copied does not go there.
Working days in a full UK calendar year
| Year | Weekdays | England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 261 | 253 | 252 | 251 |
| 2026 | 261 | 253 | 251 | 251 |
| 2027 | 261 | 253 | 252 | 251 |
| 2028 | 260 | 252 | 251 | 250 |
What this UK working-day count leaves out
Bank holidays are not a right to a paid day off. GOV.UK says an employer does not have to give paid leave on a bank holiday. This page only removes the date from a weekday count. Privilege holidays, trades holidays, and local holidays set by a council are not in the GOV.UK national lists. Edinburgh and Glasgow do not share one local calendar, and neither is modeled.
The stored dates stop at the end of 2028. A royal proclamation can add a bank holiday after this page was built. The 15 June 2026 Scotland holiday is included because it was already on the GOV.UK list retrieved on 27 October 2026. A later proclamation for 2027 or 2028 would be missing until the list is updated. Christmas and Boxing Day substitutes that are already in the source list are included. This page does not compute Easter. It copies the published dates.
A Tuesday-to-Saturday workplace will not match a Monday-to-Friday count. Neither will a worker whose contract says bank holidays are ordinary working days. Count every weekday in that second case. The US federal-holiday calculator is the wrong list for a UK contract, and this list is the wrong one for a US payroll calendar.
The count is not a court time limit and not a payment-clearing rule. Some deadlines use a different convention for the first day, the last day, or a day the banks are shut in one nation only. Scottish banks often follow the England and Wales closure dates for business reasons even when the Scottish bank holiday is different. If the question is “is the bank open?”, check the bank. If the question is “how many weekdays are not national bank holidays?”, use this page.
Frequently asked questions
How many working days does England and Wales have in 2026?
253, if the eight bank holidays are removed. The year has 261 weekdays, and all eight holidays fall on weekdays. Leave the holidays in and the headline is 261. The inclusive calendar count is 365. Scotland and Northern Ireland are each 251 for the same year.
Why does Scotland have fewer working days than England in 2026?
Scotland’s list removes ten weekdays and England’s removes eight. Scotland adds 2 January, 15 June, and St Andrew’s Day on 30 November, and its summer holiday is 3 August rather than 31 August. It does not have Easter Monday. The net is two fewer working days, 251 rather than 253. In 2025 and 2027, without the World Cup Monday, Scotland is 252.
Is Easter Monday 2026 a bank holiday in Scotland?
No. From 3 April through 6 April 2026, England and Wales have 0 working days and Scotland has 1, the Monday. Northern Ireland keeps Easter Monday, so it matches England on that weekend. Good Friday is a bank holiday in all three lists.
Is 15 June 2026 a working day in England?
Yes on this calculator. The World Cup bank holiday is on the Scotland list only. The week of 15 June through 19 June is 5 working days in England and Wales and 4 in Scotland. A later year in the stored list does not repeat that Monday.
Which years of UK bank holidays can this page remove?
2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028, from the GOV.UK list retrieved on 27 October 2026. A span outside those years is refused while holidays are excluded. You can still count every weekday on a longer span. 2028 has 260 weekdays and 252 working days in England and Wales.
Related ClearCalc pages
- Canada business days calculator Ontario has 253 business days in 2026, the same count as England and Wales, but the holidays are Family Day, Victoria Day, and Canada Day rather than these bank holidays. British Columbia has 250.
- US business days calculator Inclusive weekdays with US federal holidays removed. Calendar year 2026 is 250 business days, not 253.
- Days between two dates Elapsed calendar days, including weekends. 1 January to 31 December 2026 is 364 on that page.
- Scotland take-home pay calculator for 2026/27 Scottish income tax and National Insurance. It does not count working days or pro-rate a salary by this 251.
- Exact age calculator Completed years, months, and days from a birthday. It does not drop weekends or bank holidays.