Twenty hours between the longest week and the shortest
In their latest reported year, people in work in the United Arab Emirates averaged 50.5 hours a week in their main job, and in the Netherlands 30.2: the longest week of 110 countries against the 106th, 20 hours apart. The table sets the two among the other economies this desk publishes in, plus Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt, where the week runs past 45 hours.
The spread is wide at both ends. Sixteen of the 110 countries average 45 hours or more and eighteen average under 35; the median country sits at 39.2. Lesotho, at 49.3 hours, is second to the Emirates, and Vanuatu, at 24.4, reports the shortest week of all. Germany, at 33.3, and the Netherlands are the two shortest weeks of the eighteen.
Men work longer than women in 108 of the 110, by a median of 4.0 hours a week. The gap is 18.5 hours in Bangladesh, 50.6 against 32.1, 14.4 in Pakistan and 13.3 in India; it is under an hour in ten countries, Thailand among them at 0.2; and in two, the Emirates and Tonga, women report the marginally longer week, 50.6 against 50.5 in the Emirates.
| Economy | Year | Hours, all | Hours, women | Hours, men | Rank of 110 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | 2025 | 50.5 | 50.6 | 50.5 | 1 |
| Pakistan | 2025 | 46.8 | 35.7 | 50.1 | 8 |
| Bangladesh | 2024 | 46.7 | 32.1 | 50.6 | 9 |
| India | 2025 | 45.5 | 36.3 | 49.6 | 13 |
| Egypt | 2024 | 45.1 | 40.0 | 46.1 | 16 |
| Thailand | 2025 | 42.4 | 42.3 | 42.5 | 31 |
| Türkiye | 2025 | 42.1 | 38.6 | 43.7 | 36 |
| Viet Nam | 2024 | 41.9 | 41.1 | 42.6 | 38 |
| Philippines | 2024 | 41.2 | 40.9 | 41.4 | 41 |
| Poland | 2024 | 38.6 | 37.1 | 39.9 | 63 |
| South Korea | 2025 | 38.5 | 35.4 | 41.0 | 64 |
| Indonesia | 2023 | 38.4 | 35.3 | 40.3 | 65 |
| Portugal | 2025 | 37.3 | 35.8 | 38.7 | 78 |
| Spain | 2025 | 36.1 | 33.7 | 38.2 | 83 |
| France | 2024 | 35.5 | 33.1 | 37.7 | 88 |
| United Kingdom | 2025 | 34.9 | 31.7 | 37.9 | 93 |
| Germany | 2024 | 33.3 | 29.4 | 36.6 | 102 |
| Netherlands | 2024 | 30.2 | 26.2 | 33.8 | 106 |
What moves with the length of the week
Across the 110, the length of the week moves against income, weakly: the correlation with log GDP per person is minus 0.25. It moves against the share of women in the labour force at minus 0.39, over the 104 countries with both figures, and with the informal share of employment at plus 0.31, over 95. None of the three is strong, and all three compare countries with each other, not any country with itself.
The country ranking is a ranking of men’s hours more than of women’s. Across the 110, the all-worker mean correlates at 0.98 with the men’s mean and at 0.89 with the women’s, and the two sexes’ means correlate at only 0.79 with each other. Bangladesh and the Netherlands make the point: Bangladeshi women average 32.1 hours, a shorter week than Dutch men at 33.8, while Bangladeshi men average 50.6.
The Emirates and the Netherlands sit at the two ends of that line. In one, women and men alike report a week above 50 hours. In the other, men average 33.8 and women 26.2, both the shortest of the eighteen, and the 20 hours between the two countries are wider than any gap between the sexes in the table.
- HOURS ACTUALLY WORKED, not contractual or usual hours. Overtime is in; holidays, sick leave and short weeks are in. A 35-hour contract worked for 42 hours counts 42, and worked for 20 counts 20.
- IN THE MAIN JOB ONLY. A second job is not added, so the figure is not a person’s total working time, and a country where many people hold two jobs is measured on the first.
- A MEAN OVER EVERYONE IN WORK aged 15 and over, part-timers included, from each country’s own labour force survey in the latest year it reported, 2023, 2024 or 2025.
So the Netherlands’ 30.2 does not say that a Dutch full-timer works 30 hours, and the Emirates’ 50.5 does not say what an Emirati contract stipulates: both are averages of what everyone in work reported doing that week in their main job. And a country where many people work part time has a short mean by construction, which the figure records and does not explain.
One number, three qualifiers, and a reading that drops any of them says something the source does not.
What the hours do not say
They do not say who works hard. The figure is hours actually worked in the main job, averaged over everyone in work, so a second job is not counted and a part-time week is. The source does not say how much of a short mean is short contracts and how much is short days, and it measures neither effort, nor output, nor pay.
They do not say that any week lengthened or shortened. The latest year is 2025 for 49 countries, 2024 for 49 and 2023 for 12, and each country appears once, in its own year. Nothing here compares a country with itself.
And they name no cause and no verdict. Working-time law, pay, part-time contracts, the mix of farm, factory and office work and the share of women in employment all sit behind these figures and none of them is measured here; so nothing here says why a week is long, or that a long week is a better or a worse one.
What the data establishes
- In their latest reported year, people in work in the United Arab Emirates averaged 50.5 hours a week in their main job (2025) and in the Netherlands 30.2 (2024): the longest week of 110 countries and the 106th, 20 hours apart.
- Across the 110, the median country is at 39.2 hours; sixteen average 45 hours or more and eighteen under 35; the range runs from 24.4 hours in Vanuatu to 50.5 in the Emirates.
- Men work longer than women in 108 of the 110, by a median of 4.0 hours: 18.5 hours in Bangladesh, 14.4 in Pakistan and 13.3 in India; under an hour in ten countries; and in the Emirates and Tonga women’s week is marginally the longer.
- Across countries the week correlates at minus 0.25 with log income, minus 0.39 with the share of women in the labour force and plus 0.31 with the informal share of employment; the all-worker mean tracks men’s hours at 0.98 and women’s at 0.89.
What it does not
- That anyone works harder. Hours are not effort, output or pay.
- That any week lengthened or shortened. One year per country, and different years across countries: nothing here is a trend.
- Any cause, including working-time law, pay, part-time contracts or the mix of jobs. None of them is measured here.
- What a full-time contract says anywhere. The figure averages everyone in work, part-timers included, in their main job only.
- Anything about Japan, China, Morocco, Saudi Arabia or Qatar, which do not report this series in the table used, or about total hours across all jobs.
Method
- One measure, one observation per country. ILOSTAT dataflow DF_HOW_TEMP_SEX_AGE_NB, mean weekly hours actually worked per employed person by sex, main job, all persons in work aged 15 and over, read through the ILO SDMX API on 17 September 2026. For each country the latest annual observation among 2023, 2024 and 2025 is used, for all workers, women and men alike; every figure in the exhibit is a national labour force survey harmonised by the ILO.
- AGGREGATES ARE NOT COUNTRIES. The ILO serves regions and income groups under codes shaped like country codes; they were removed by keeping only codes in the World Bank’s country list, leaving 110 countries: 49 whose latest year is 2025, 49 with 2024 and 12 with 2023. Every rank and count is out of the 110. Japan, China, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Qatar do not report this series in that table, which is why the exhibit holds thirteen of this desk’s sixteen markets and five other economies.
- The median is the mean of the 55th and 56th values, 39.1 and 39.2 hours, so 39.15, shown as 39.2. The gap by sex is men’s mean minus women’s in the same country and year; the median of the 110 gaps is 4.03 hours, shown as 4.0. Sixteen countries are at 45 hours or more and eighteen under 35.
- The correlations are Pearson coefficients across countries: the all-worker week against the natural logarithm of GDP per capita at PPP (World Bank NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD, 2024, 110 countries), against female labour force participation (SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS, modelled ILO, 2024, 104 countries) and against informal employment as a share of total employment (ILOSTAT DF_EMP_NIFL_SEX_RT, latest year, 95 countries); and the all-worker mean against the men’s and women’s means across the 110. They describe how the figures sit together across countries, not how any country moved.
- Rounding is done once, at display. The Emirates to Netherlands difference is 20.30 hours from the unrounded 50.54 and 30.24, shown as 20; the ratio is 1.67. The eighteen economies are the thirteen markets of this desk with a figure, plus the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt.
Primary sources
- ILOSTATMean weekly hours actually worked per employed person by sex and age, main jobDF_HOW_TEMP_SEX_AGE_NB · September 17, 2026
- ILOSTATInformal employment rate by sex (% of total employment)DF_EMP_NIFL_SEX_RT · September 17, 2026
- World Bank Open DataGDP per capita, PPP (constant 2021 international $)NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD · September 17, 2026
- World Bank Open DataLabor force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15+), modeled ILO estimateSL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS · September 17, 2026
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