Public holidays in Netherlands, 2028
Netherlands observes 11 nationwide public holidays in 2028. After weekends and those holidays are removed, the working year comes to 252 days.
Every public holiday in 2028
| Date | Day | Holiday | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, 1 Jan | Saturday Weekend | New Year's Day Nieuwjaarsdag |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 14 Apr | Friday | Good Friday Goede Vrijdag |
Nationwide |
| Sun, 16 Apr | Sunday Weekend | Easter Sunday Eerste Paasdag |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 17 Apr | Monday | Easter Monday Tweede Paasdag |
Nationwide |
| Thu, 27 Apr | Thursday | King's Day Koningsdag |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 5 May | Friday | Liberation Day Bevrijdingsdag |
Nationwide |
| Thu, 25 May | Thursday | Ascension Day Hemelvaartsdag |
Nationwide |
| Sun, 4 Jun | Sunday Weekend | Pentecost Eerste Pinksterdag |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 5 Jun | Monday | Whit Monday Tweede Pinksterdag |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 25 Dec | Monday | Christmas Day Eerste Kerstdag |
Nationwide |
| Tue, 26 Dec | Tuesday | St. Stephen's Day Tweede Kerstdag |
Nationwide |
Working days month by month
| Month | Calendar days | Weekend | Holidays | Working days | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| February | 29 | 8 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| March | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| April | 30 | 10 | 3 | 17 | 136 |
| May | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 | 168 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| August | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| September | 30 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| December | 31 | 10 | 2 | 19 | 152 |
| Year | 366 | 106 | 8 | 252 | 2,016 |
Reading these figures
The working day count treats Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, which is the standard working week in Netherlands. Only nationwide holidays are deducted; a date observed in one region alone still counts as a working day here, because a national figure that moved with regional calendars would describe nobody accurately.
3 of this year's public holidays fall on a weekend and therefore add no time away from work: New Year's Day (1 Jan), Easter Sunday (16 Apr), Pentecost (4 Jun). Whether these are compensated with a substitute day depends on national rules rather than on the calendar, so confirm before planning around them.
The longest working month is March at 23 days; the shortest is April at 17. That spread of 6 days matters for anything billed or accrued monthly, which is why payroll and capacity plans that assume an even year drift by the end of it. The thinnest quarter is Q2, carrying 59 working days across April, May, June.
Compared with 2027, which held 254 working days, 2028 is 2 working days shorter. Where a target is carried over from one year to the next unchanged, that difference is absorbed silently unless someone accounts for it.
Against the 204 countries covered here for 2028, Netherlands's 11 nationwide holidays put it below the median of 12, around the 39th percentile. The range across all countries this year runs from 3 to 50.
The holidays produce 4 breaks of three consecutive non-working days or more. The longest runs 4 days, from 14 April 2028 to 17 April 2028, built around Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. A further 2 working days are stranded between a holiday and a weekend, where one day of leave buys a break of four days or more. The full breakdown is here.
6 of this year's holidays sit on a different calendar date than in 2027: Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Whit Monday. Dates that move cannot be carried forward from last year's planning spreadsheet, which is the most common way a holiday is missed.
Notes on Netherlands
The Dutch case is one where a public holiday list and a day off are two different things. Very
few Dutch holidays carry a statutory right to paid leave; entitlement usually comes from the
collective labour agreement covering the sector, so the same date can be a paid day off in one
industry and a normal working day in another. Good Friday is the clearest example: officially
recognised, widely worked.
King's Day falls on 27 April and moves to 26 April when the 27th is a Sunday, which is one of
the few genuine date shifts in the Dutch calendar.
Liberation Day on 5 May is the one to check before planning around it. It is a national
commemoration every year, but for most employees it is a paid day off only in the lustrum years,
once every five, and again this depends on the agreement covering the sector.