How Many Business Days Are in a Year? 260 to 262 Weekdays, Federal Counts 2024-2035

A year has 260 to 262 Monday-Friday days, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) federal holiday rules turn that into 249 to 251 federal workdays in each year from 2024 to 2035. Those are our own counts, computed from the OPM holiday list and 5 U.S. Code 6103. The right figure for you depends on whose calendar you follow, so this guide gives the method, a year-by-year table and a worked example for 2026. For one year in detail, see Working Days in 2027, month by month.

How many weekdays does a calendar year hold?

A common year has 365 days, which is 52 weeks plus 1 day. A leap year has 366 days, which is 52 weeks plus 2 days. Fifty-two weeks hold 260 Monday-Friday days (52 times 5), so the weekday count is that baseline plus whatever the extra days are.

The extra days are the weekday of January 1 (and January 2 in a leap year). We checked the rule against every year from 1990 to 2100.

Year type	January 1 falls on	Monday-Friday days
Common (365 days)	Monday to Friday	261
Common (365 days)	Saturday or Sunday	260
Leap (366 days)	Monday to Thursday	262
Leap (366 days)	Friday or Sunday	261
Leap (366 days)	Saturday	260

That is why 2024 (a leap year starting on a Monday) has 262 weekdays and 2026 and 2027 have 261 each, while 2028 (a leap year starting on a Saturday) has 260. Counting weekdays is not yet counting business days: no holiday has been removed.

How do you calculate business days in a year?

Use one formula and say which holiday list goes into it:

Business days = Monday-Friday days minus the holidays that land on those days

1. List every date in the year and keep Monday through Friday.
2. Pick the holiday list: federal, exchange, Federal Reserve or your employer’s.
3. Move each holiday to its observed date. For most federal employees, OPM says a holiday on a Saturday is treated as the preceding Friday, and a holiday on a Sunday as the following Monday.
4. Remove the observed dates that land on a weekday in that year.
5. Apply employer closures on top, such as a company shutdown week.

Step 4 has a catch. An observed date can fall in a different year than the holiday. New Year’s Day 2028 is a Saturday, so the federal observed day is Friday, Dec. 31, 2027. We counted it in 2027, which is why 2027 shows 12 observed holidays and 249 federal workdays. The same thing happens in 2032, when Jan. 1, 2033 is a Saturday.

Federal workdays by year, 2024 to 2035

The table uses the 11 legal public holidays in 5 U.S. Code 6103 and the OPM weekend rule. It is our computation; OPM does not publish a yearly count.

Year	Jan. 1	Monday-Friday days	Federal holidays observed in the year	Federal workdays
2024	Mon.	262	11	251
2025	Wed.	261	11	250
2026	Thu.	261	11	250
2027	Fri.	261	12	249
2028	Sat.	260	10	250
2029	Mon.	261	11	250
2030	Tue.	261	11	250
2031	Wed.	261	11	250
2032	Thu.	262	12	250
2033	Sat.	260	10	250
2034	Sun.	260	11	249
2035	Mon.	261	11	250

The workday column moves less than the weekday column: it stays between 249 and 251 while weekdays range from 260 to 262. Compare 2028 and 2033, each with 260 weekdays and 10 observed holidays, with 2024, which has 262 weekdays and 11 holidays: 250 workdays against 251.

Inauguration Day is separate. Under 5 U.S. Code 6103(c), January 20 of each fourth year after 1965 is a legal public holiday for pay and leave only for employees in the Washington, DC, area (the District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland, and Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia). The next one is Jan. 20, 2029, a Saturday by our calculation. The table does not count it, because it does not apply to most federal employees.

What does 2026 look like as a worked example?

There are 261 weekdays in 2026. The 11 federal holidays all land on weekdays after the observed-date rule, so the federal count is 261 minus 11, or 250. The observed dates are Jan. 1, Jan. 19, Feb. 16, May 25, June 19, July 3, Sept. 7, Oct. 12, Nov. 11, Nov. 26 and Dec. 25. OPM lists Friday, July 3 as the observed date for Independence Day, because July 4, 2026 is a Saturday.

The NYSE calendar for 2026 lists 10 market holidays: Jan. 1, Jan. 19, Feb. 16, Good Friday on April 3, May 25, June 19, July 3, Sept. 7, Nov. 26 and Dec. 25. All fall on weekdays, so 261 minus 10 gives 251 trading days by our arithmetic. The exchange also lists 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) early closes on Friday, Nov. 27 and Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026; those are shortened trading days, not holidays. For the last two months of the year, see business days in November and December 2026.

How do federal, Federal Reserve and NYSE calendars differ?

They share most dates and split on a few. In 2026 the split is clear in the dates below.

2026 date	Federal offices (OPM)	NYSE	Federal Reserve
Fri., April 3 (Good Friday)	Open; not a federal holiday	Closed	Not covered here
Fri., July 3 (Independence Day observed)	Closed	Closed	Banks and Branches open; Board of Governors closed
Mon., Oct. 12 (Columbus Day)	Closed	Open	Not covered here
Wed., Nov. 11 (Veterans Day)	Closed	Open	Not covered here

The Federal Reserve’s K.8 page, updated July 8, 2026, sets the rule behind the July 3 row: for holidays falling on Saturday, Federal Reserve Banks and Branches are open the preceding Friday, but the Board of Governors is closed. For holidays on Sunday, all Federal Reserve offices close the following Monday.

So the same Friday counted as a federal holiday and an NYSE holiday but a working day at the Reserve Banks. Treat “business day” as a question about one institution, and use that institution’s list. The 11 federal holidays give 250 workdays in 2026; the 10 exchange closures give 251 trading days. The federal government also counts its budget year differently; see what a fiscal year is.

How do you count business days between two dates?

In Microsoft Excel the network days function (NETWORKDAYS) takes NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays]) and, Microsoft says, returns the number of whole working days between the two dates. Google Sheets lists the same function and syntax and returns the net working days between two dates. Put your holiday dates in a range and pass it as the third argument.

Two checks before you trust the answer:

• The weekend. The international (INTL) version, NETWORKDAYS.INTL, takes a weekend argument. Per Microsoft, 1 or omitted means Saturday and Sunday, 11 means Sunday only and 7 means Friday and Saturday.
• The holiday list. The function does not know your country or employer. Use observed dates, not nominal ones: for 2026, enter July 3 rather than July 4.

For a full-year count, take the 2026 list above, enter those 11 dates as your holidays and compare the result with 250. A different result points to an observed date entered as the nominal date, or a weekend setting that does not match your week.

Print the business days table

The one-page printable below holds all 12 years from the table, the formula, the weekend rule and the spreadsheet function. Mark your own closures on a printable yearly calendar, check holiday dates on the holidays pages, and see the fiscal year calendar guide for how those days sit inside a budget year.