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Dutch Working Days Calculator (Werkdagen) - Excluding Public Holidays

Count the working days between two dates, skipping weekends and Dutch public holidays such as King's Day and Ascension Day. Free and browser-based, nothing is uploaded.

Working days

82

Total days in range115
Weekend days32
Public holidays on weekdays1

Holidays excluded from the count

  • Christmas DayFri, 25 Dec 2026

Dutch public holidays 2026

2026
Thu, 1 Jan 2026New Year's Day (Nieuwjaarsdag)day off
Fri, 3 Apr 2026Good Friday (Goede Vrijdag)working day
Sun, 5 Apr 2026Easter Sunday (Eerste Paasdag)day off
Mon, 6 Apr 2026Easter Monday (Tweede Paasdag)day off
Mon, 27 Apr 2026King's Day (Koningsdag)day off
Tue, 5 May 2026Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag)working day
Thu, 14 May 2026Ascension Day (Hemelvaartsdag)day off
Sun, 24 May 2026Whit Sunday (Eerste Pinksterdag)day off
Mon, 25 May 2026Whit Monday (Tweede Pinksterdag)day off
Fri, 25 Dec 2026Christmas Day (Eerste Kerstdag)day off
Sat, 26 Dec 2026Boxing Day (Tweede Kerstdag)day off

Counting Working Days the Dutch Way

A Dutch calendar year has 260 or 261 weekdays, but not all of them are working days. Official public holidays that fall on a weekday reduce the count: New Year's Day, Easter Monday, King's Day (27 April, or 26 April when the 27th is a Sunday), Ascension Day, Whit Monday, and both Christmas days. Liberation Day (5 May) is only a paid day off once every five years under most collective agreements, most recently in 2025, so this calculator counts it as a working day in other years.

Good Friday is the classic trap: it is an official holiday (officiele feestdag) but not a statutory day off, and most Dutch companies work normally while schools and banks close. The holiday table above marks it as a working day for that reason. Easter and Whitsun move with the lunar calendar, which is why Ascension Day can land anywhere from 30 April to 3 June and often creates a popular four-day weekend when combined with a Friday off.

Working day counts matter for project planning, delivery times, payroll, and legal deadlines. A sprint from 1 May to 31 May 2026 looks like 21 weekdays but shrinks once Ascension Day and Whit Monday are removed. HR teams use the same math for pro rata vacation accrual and for calculating whether a probation period or response deadline has expired.

This tool uses the same holiday engine as the ToolForte public holidays overview and REST API, computing Easter with the standard Meeus/Jones/Butcher algorithm, so dates are exact for any year. Need plain date math without the Dutch calendar? The Date Calculator adds or subtracts days from any date, and the PTO Calculator helps plan your vacation balance. Everything runs locally in your browser.

Dutch rules toolkit

This is one of 21 tools built on actual Dutch regulations rather than generic maths: salary and severance, notice periods and WW duration, BTW and mortgages, public holidays, AOW age, and GDPR-safe test data for Dutch systems.

See all Dutch tools

How the Working Days Calculator Works

  1. 01Pick a start and end date; both days are included in the count.
  2. 02Keep the Dutch public holidays toggle on to exclude official days off that fall on weekdays.
  3. 03Read off the working days, weekend days, and which holidays were excluded.
  4. 04Scroll down for the complete Dutch holiday calendar for every year in your range, including which days are actually days off.

Which Days Count as Working Days

The calculator counts Monday through Friday and removes official Dutch public holidays: New Year's Day, Easter Monday, King's Day, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, and both Christmas days. Liberation Day (5 May) counts as a day off once every five years, and Good Friday is deliberately counted as a working day because most Dutch companies work normally.

When to Use This Calculator

Use it for project and sprint planning, calculating delivery times in working days, checking legal or contractual deadlines, counting remaining working days before a holiday or your last day at work, and payroll or pro rata calculations.

Common Use Cases

  • Plan a sprint or project phase in real working days instead of calendar weeks. → Date Calculator
  • Count the working days until your contract ends after giving notice. → Dutch Notice Period Calculator
  • Check delivery or response deadlines that are defined in working days.

Tips

  • May is the trap month: Ascension Day, Whit Monday, and sometimes Liberation Day can remove three working days.
  • For multi-year planning the tool lists every holiday per year, so you can spot years where Christmas falls on a weekend.
  • Combine with a bridge day (brugdag) strategy: one vacation day next to Ascension Day buys a four-day weekend.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many working days does a Dutch year have?→
Typically around 254 to 256. A year has 260 or 261 weekdays, and roughly 5 to 7 public holidays fall on a weekday depending on the year and on whether Liberation Day is a day off, which happens once every five years (most recently 2025).
Is Good Friday a working day in the Netherlands?→
For most people, yes. Good Friday is an official holiday and schools, banks, and government offices often close, but most CAOs do not designate it as a paid day off. This calculator therefore counts it as a working day.
Why does King's Day sometimes fall on 26 April?→
King's Day is 27 April, but when that date is a Sunday the celebration and the public holiday move to Saturday 26 April. In those years it does not reduce the working day count at all, since it falls on a weekend either way.
Are Easter and Whitsun dates the same every year?→
No, they move with the lunar calendar. Easter Sunday falls between 22 March and 25 April, and Ascension Day and Whit Monday follow 39 and 50 days later. The calculator computes them exactly with the standard Meeus/Jones/Butcher algorithm.
Are both the start and end date included?→
Yes, the range is inclusive on both sides. Monday through Friday of one week is 5 working days. If you need the number of days between two dates exclusive of the start, shift the start date one day forward.

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