While some of the most successful and happiest countries in the world like Sweden or Denmark have shorter working day than the most others, let’s see those hardest working countries in the world ranked by average working hours.
Country’s economic power does not need to reflect shortening working hours necessarily, as it is becoming a global trend now. So, I guess we should first start from average hours worked per week for full-time jobs. That depends, firstly on the type of job and the employers, and also varies between the countries. In Denmark, for example, the average week consists of 33 working hours, making it one of the most flexible countries in when it comes to working time organization. But, in any case, working week can take from 30 up to 37.5 hours on average nowadays.
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On the contrary to the hardest working countries ranked by average working hours, some least hard working countries seem to be more productive than others. The most productive country, with around 1,566 annual working hours and $93.4 GDP per worked hour is Luxemburg, comparing to Mexico, for example, with only $20 GDP per worked hour. And, on that issue, Mexico is among the top hardest working countries in the world, as you will see further down on our list. And although being among the top hard working countries, Mexico also holds the place on our list of laziest countries in the world that we compiled a while ago. So, looking at the hardest working countries 2016 from the angle of annual GDP compared to working hours, the list here would be somehow different, as we have shown in the example of Luxembourg. And on the issue of GDP, you can check out the article on richest countries in the world by 2017 GDP. What about countries like India? As you will see more information on average working hours in India further down on our list, meaning it is among the top hardest working countries in the world by average working hours, India is doing well with the economic growth. According to CLI (Composite Leading Indicators), India is on a slow but steady growth, unlike Brazil and Russia for example.
Japan also stands for a country of hard workers, but according to average working hours, that does not seem to be the case compared to other hardest working countries in the world by this criterion. But nevertheless, there are more interesting things to learn about this country, like 50 crazy facts about Japan you won’t believe for example. Where does the USA stand on the working issue and how many hours does the average American work a year? According to the United States Department of Labor, people average work 7.8 hours a day, which is around 1,796 working days a year, and around the same as Japan (with 1,785 working days). Since we are talking about average work hours per day in the US, you might as well find out how 8-hour workday changed how Americans work.
Our research has led us to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD.Stat), where we have taken latest data on hardest working countries ranked by average working hours on an annual basis for 2016. But since the data they collect does not cover some Asian and African countries, we have searched for information on those countries individually from various sources, like The Times of India, The Guardian, and Focus Taiwan for example. Then we have ranked our list on the annual rather than the average hours worked per week by country.
So, the hardest working countries in the world ranked by average working hours are as follows:
