Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE

Check Out How Much The Average American Works Each Year Compared To The French, The Germans, And The Koreans

How much work does the average American do each year compared to workers elsewhere in the world?

Advertisement

The economics website FRED just added a bunch of new economic data which makes this question very easy to examine.

As you can see, the average full-time American employee works right around 1,700 hours per year.

The first question you might have is: How does this compare to France, which famously has shorter work weeks, and tons of vacation time?

US work week
FRED

Good question. Turns out the French used to work way more than the Americans, but then the French really cut back, and now work way less. So the clichés about how much the French work are true.

Advertisement
US vs. France work week
FRED

Now what about the famously hard-working Germans.

Turns out, they basically went the French route. Actually, these days, the Germans (green line) work even fewer hours per year than the French do! Like the French, they used to work more hours than the Americans, but then jumped on the vacation bandwagon.

usvsfrenchvsgermany
FRED

So the U.S. works the most, right?

Ha!

Advertisement

Let's add in Singapore. It's not even close. As you can see on the top line, Singapore is crushing the U.S. in annual hours worked.

usfrenchgermansingapore
FRED

Toss in Korea and Hong Kong, and you can see, all of the East Asian economies crush the U.S. in hours worked per year.

koreahongkongusworkannualwork
FRED

So if you're in the U.S., thinking you'd like to have it more like the Europeans do, just appreciate the fact that some places work MANY more hours per year.

Work
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account