The short answer for 2026
2026 has 250 work days. The math: 365 calendar days minus 104 weekend days leaves 261 weekdays. Subtract the 11 US federal holidays that fall on weekdays, and you get 250. That is the standard answer for a typical US office worker before any personal time off.
Three terms get mixed up, so pin them down. Weekdays are Monday through Friday on the calendar, holidays included: 261 in 2026. Work days (or working days) are weekdays minus public holidays: 250 in 2026. Business days are the same as work days in most business usage, though some contracts define them differently. Most disagreements about "how many work days in a year" come from people using different definitions.
Why the number changes every year
Three things move the count. First, leap years add a day: 2028 has 366 days. Second, which weekday January 1 falls on decides how many of the year's days land on weekends. A year is 52 weeks plus one day (two in a leap year), so the extra days are bonus weekdays or bonus weekend days depending on the calendar. Third, holidays that land on weekends get observed on a nearby weekday, and that can push a holiday into the adjacent year.
The table below shows how it plays out from 2024 to 2030, counting federal holidays on their observed dates:
2024 (leap year): 366 days, 104 weekend days, 262 weekdays, 11 holidays, 251 work days.
2025: 365 days, 104 weekend days, 261 weekdays, 11 holidays, 250 work days.
2026: 365 days, 104 weekend days, 261 weekdays, 11 holidays, 250 work days.
2027: 365 days, 104 weekend days, 261 weekdays, 12 observed holiday dates, 249 work days. January 1, 2028 falls on a Saturday, so the federal government observes New Year's Day on Friday, December 31, 2027, which steals a work day from 2027.
2028 (leap year): 366 days, 106 weekend days, 260 weekdays, 10 holidays, 250 work days. A leap year that starts on a Saturday can still produce only 260 weekdays.
2029: 365 days, 104 weekend days, 261 weekdays, 11 holidays, 250 work days.
2030: 365 days, 104 weekend days, 261 weekdays, 11 holidays, 250 work days.
The 11 federal holidays of 2026
Every one of these either falls on a weekday in 2026 or is observed on one: New Year's Day, Thursday January 1. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday January 19. Presidents Day, Monday February 16. Memorial Day, Monday May 25. Juneteenth, Friday June 19. Independence Day, Saturday July 4, observed Friday July 3. Labor Day, Monday September 7. Columbus Day, Monday October 12. Veterans Day, Wednesday November 11. Thanksgiving, Thursday November 26. Christmas, Friday December 25.
Your employer may observe fewer or different days. Many private companies skip Columbus Day and Veterans Day, and some add the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve. For your personal count, subtract your own company's holidays, not the federal list.
2026 month by month
Here are work days per month for 2026, weekdays minus the federal holidays that land in each month. January: 20. February: 19. March: 22. April: 22. May: 20. June: 21. July: 22. August: 21. September: 21. October: 21. November: 19. December: 22. Total: 250.
Notice how uneven the months are. November has only 19 work days because of Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, while March and April have 22 each with no holidays. If you are planning a project deadline or a vacation, the month matters as much as the year.
Work days into work hours
Multiply work days by your hours per day. At the standard 8-hour day, 250 work days is 2,000 work hours per year. That number is the backbone of salary math: a $100,000 salary works out to about $50 per hour at 2,000 hours. Freelancers use the same math in reverse: target income divided by (work days times billable hours per day) sets the minimum viable rate. If you take 15 days of PTO, your real denominator is 235 days, not 250.
Counting it in a spreadsheet
In Excel or Google Sheets, =NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2026,1,1),DATE(2026,12,31)) returns 261, the weekday count. To subtract holidays, list the holiday dates in a range and pass it as the third argument: =NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2026,1,1),DATE(2026,12,31),holidays). Google Sheets has the same function. Both count the endpoints inclusively, which is correct here because January 1 and December 31, 2026 are both weekdays.
Your number is probably not 250
The 250 figure assumes a Monday-to-Friday schedule, US federal holidays, and zero time off. Part-time schedules, shift work, state-specific holidays, company floating holidays, PTO, sick leave, and parental leave all reduce it. A typical US worker with 15 PTO days and the 11 federal holidays actually works about 235 days. Use 250 as the starting point, then subtract your own reality.