Living Abroad

Countries with the most public holidays

Anna Allgaier

31.05.23 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 1 minute

🎵 Holiday
Celebrate
Holiday
Celebrate
If we took a holiday,
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice 🎵

What a lot of people don’t know is that Madonna’s 1983 hit, “Holiday” was in fact an ode to public holidays. Public holidays are a beautiful thing. It’s like pulling a sickie at school, without having to press your head against a radiator for 20 minutes to convince people you have a fever.

At Wise, we offer a multitude of products to help you make the world your oyster, with a multi-currency account that holds over 40 currencies and a card that allows you to spend in 175 countries. This isn’t just me being super unsubtle and plugging Wise (it is a little bit) it’s also my way of saying “Hey, if you want to make a huge life choice and move based on which countries have the most public holidays, we can help.”

I used to live in Germany which had more public holidays than my current homebase in the UK. I was not aware of this before making the move. And I’m here to stop you from making the same life-altering decision I did with a list of countries with the most public holidays.

We make our fees public, so you can go on holiday

Countries with the most public holidays

Lebanon, 19

Bottom of the list? Sure, but they still have 9 more public holidays than we do in the UK 🥲

Argentina, 19

Tied with Lebanon. There’s nothing wrong with a Draw.

India, 21

Most of the country is classified as tropical, AND they have 21 days off. Hot and happy.

Cambodia, 21

Still having fun with the help of 21.

Liechtenstein, 20 to 22

Liechtenstein you are so fine.

Egypt, 22

Get a grip, move to Egypt (does that rhyme?)

Bangladesh, 22

Bangladesh keeping it fresh.

Iran, 26

Yes you can, Iran (I’m still trying to rhyme, so please imagine that can is pronounced “KAAN” thank you).

Myanmar, 32

Myanmar will have you going “my oh my.”

Nepal, 36

And Nepal takes the crown with 36 public holidays. The average climb time of Everest is about two months, so with all your public holiday days, you could get yourself just over halfway there. Or, you could just lie-in like the rest of us.

Move your money first

P.S At the moment Wise isn't available in Iran or Myanmar, so we won't be able to acompany you on your holiday quest in those two destinations.

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