How to use the business days calculator
- Choose what to work out. Between two dates counts the working days in a date range. Add working days finds the date a number of working days after (or before) a start date, which is handy for deadlines such as "within 10 business days".
- Pick the public holidays to leave out: none, US federal holidays, or the bank holidays of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
- Enter the dates. The result updates as you type, with the holidays that fell in the range listed underneath. Use Copy result to paste the answer into an email or a spreadsheet.
How working days are counted
A working day here is any Monday to Friday that is not a public holiday on the list you chose. The calculator works it out like this:
Working days = calendar days in the range, minus Saturdays and Sundays, minus holidays that fall on a weekday.
The start date is always counted. The end date is counted too while Count the end date as well is ticked, which is the usual way to count "Monday to Friday is 5 working days". Untick it if you want the days up to the end date, for example when the end date is the day something is due back.
Example: December 2026, from Tuesday, December 1 to Thursday, December 31, both dates counted.
| Holidays | Calendar days | Weekend days | Holidays | Working days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 |
| US federal (Christmas Day, Friday 25th) | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 |
| England and Wales (Christmas Day, Boxing Day moved to Monday 28th) | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 |
With the end date not counted, each working days figure is one lower, because December 31, 2026 is a Thursday, a working day.
US federal holidays and observed days
The US list is the 11 legal public holidays in federal law, 5 U.S.C. 6103: New Year's Day (January 1), Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. ("the third Monday in January"), Washington's Birthday (the third Monday in February), Memorial Day ("the last Monday in May"), Juneteenth National Independence Day (June 19), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (the first Monday in September), Columbus Day (the second Monday in October), Veterans Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day ("the fourth Thursday in November") and Christmas Day (December 25).
When a fixed-date holiday lands on a weekend, the day off moves. The Office of Personnel Management puts it this way:
"If a holiday falls on a Saturday, for most Federal employees, the preceding Friday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, for most Federal employees, the following Monday will be treated as a holiday..."US Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays
So July 4, 2026 is a Saturday and Friday, July 3 is the day off. In 2027, July 4 is a Sunday and Monday, July 5 is off. New Year's Day 2028 is a Saturday, so it is observed on Friday, December 31, 2027, which gives 2027 twelve federal days off instead of eleven. The calculator takes off the observed day and marks it "(observed)".
Holidays are worked out by these rules for any year from 2021, when Juneteenth was added to the list. For earlier dates only weekends are taken off, and the calculator says so. These are federal holidays: banks, states and private employers may close on different days, so check with them if a deadline depends on it.
UK bank holidays
England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own bank holidays. Scotland has 2 January and St Andrew's Day, and in 2026 an extra World Cup bank holiday on 15 June. Northern Ireland has St Patrick's Day and the Battle of the Boyne. The dates come straight from GOV.UK's official list, which currently runs from 2019 to 2028. For a year outside that range the calculator takes off weekends only and shows a note.
When a bank holiday falls at a weekend, GOV.UK says "a 'substitute' weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday." Boxing Day 2026 is a Saturday, so Monday 28 December is the bank holiday instead.
A bank holiday is not automatically a day off for everyone: GOV.UK notes that "Your employer does not have to give you paid leave on bank or public holidays." If you work them, count the days yourself or choose None, weekends only.
Adding working days to a date
To find a date a number of working days ahead, the calculator steps forward one day at a time from the start date, skipping weekends and holidays, until it has counted that many working days. The start date itself is not counted, so 1 working day after a Friday is the following Monday. Choose Before it to count backwards instead.
Example: 10 working days after Friday, December 18, 2026.
| Holidays | Holidays skipped | Result |
|---|---|---|
| US federal | Christmas Day, New Year's Day | Tuesday, January 5, 2027 |
| England and Wales | Christmas Day, Boxing Day (substitute), New Year's Day | Wednesday, January 6, 2027 |
Questions and answers
Does the business days count include the start and end dates?
The start date is always counted. The end date is counted while "Count the end date as well" is ticked, so Monday to Friday of one week is 5 working days. Untick it to count the days up to, but not including, the end date.
How many working days are there in 2026?
There are 261 weekdays in 2026. Taking off US federal holidays leaves 250 working days. Taking off England and Wales bank holidays leaves 253; Scotland and Northern Ireland have 251 each.
What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?
For US federal holidays, a Saturday holiday is taken on the Friday before and a Sunday holiday on the Monday after. UK bank holidays get a substitute weekday, normally the following Monday. The calculator takes off the day people actually have off.
Can I use it for a working days calculation in the UK?
Yes. Choose the bank holidays for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. If your browser is set to UK English, England and Wales is chosen for you.
Does it include state holidays or holidays like Good Friday in the US?
No. The US option uses the 11 federal holidays only. If your office also closes on a state holiday or another day, take those days off the result yourself.
Sources
Checked on 7 October 2026. If a rule has changed, please tell us.