Countries by Average Working Hours 2024

It's astonishing that today's workers can match the output of their 1950 counterparts, who worked 40 hours a week, in just 11 hours. Yet, despite this four-fold increase in productivity, our working hours haven't decreased as dramatically as one might expect. Let's examine the historical data to uncover the trends in working hours and identify the countries where people currently put in the longest hours.

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List of Countries by Average Working Hours 2024

As countries become more prosperous and productivity rises, weekly working hours tend to decline. Germany, for instance, saw a remarkable 40% drop in average weekly working hours for full-time workers outside of agriculture between 1870 and 2010. Most developed nations follow this trend, where working hours are generally shorter than in developing countries. In spite of their high incomes, some affluent countries do not follow this trend, including South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Here is the complete list:

Although modern employees work substantially fewer hours than their Industrial Revolution-era counterparts, the amount of time spent working still varies greatly from country to country. Average annual working hours differ significantly across nations, reflecting diverse cultural, economic, and social factors.

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Countries by Average Working Hours

Compared to the 19th century, modern employees work significantly fewer hours, with a reduction of 20-30 hours per week. In developed countries, average annual work hours plummeted from 3,000 hours in 1870 to between 1,500-2,000 hours by 1990. Many countries have, however, slowed down or reversed this downward trend. Prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies had much shorter workweeks than modern agricultural societies, according to research. Ancient people worked an average of 1,773 hours per year, whereas modern farmers log around 1,980 hours per year, highlighting a surprising increase in work hours over time.

Following the Industrial Revolution's introduction of lengthy working hours, a significant shift occurred in the 1980s when the labour force expanded. As industries evolved and progressed, average working hours continued to decrease. By 2020, this downward trend had resulted in a substantial reduction in annual working hours compared to 1980, marking a notable improvement in work-life balance over the past few decades.

NOTE: Compiled from multiple online sources, this list represents a thorough and accurate aggregation of data, with the most recent information available as of 2024, providing a timely and reliable overview of average working hours worldwide.

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