Public holidays in United States, 2026
United States observes 11 nationwide public holidays in 2026. After weekends and those holidays are removed, the working year comes to 250 days.
Every public holiday in 2026
| Date | Day | Holiday | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| Mon, 19 Jan | Monday | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | Nationwide |
| Thu, 12 Feb | Thursday | Lincoln's Birthday | US-CA, US-CT, US-IL, US-IN, US-KY, US-MI, US-NY, US-MO, US-OH |
| Mon, 16 Feb | Monday | Presidents Day Washington's Birthday |
Nationwide |
| Fri, 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday | US-CT, US-DE, US-HI, US-IN, US-KY, US-LA, US-NC, US-ND, US-NJ, US-TN |
| Fri, 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday | US-TX |
| Fri, 8 May | Friday | Truman Day | US-MO |
| Mon, 25 May | Monday | Memorial Day | Nationwide |
| Fri, 19 Jun | Friday | Juneteenth National Independence Day | Nationwide |
| Fri, 3 Jul | Friday | Independence Day | Nationwide |
| Mon, 7 Sep | Monday | Labour Day Labor Day |
Nationwide |
| Mon, 12 Oct | Monday | Columbus Day | US-AL, US-AZ, US-CO, US-CT, US-GA, US-ID, US-IL, US-IN, US-IA, US-KS, US-KY, US-LA, US-ME, US-MD, US-MA, US-MS, US-MO, US-MT, US-NE, US-NH, US-NJ, US-NM, US-NY, US-NC, US-OH, US-OK, US-PA, US-RI, US-SC, US-TN, US-UT, US-VA, US-WV |
| Mon, 12 Oct | Monday | Columbus Day | Nationwide |
| Mon, 12 Oct | Monday | Indigenous Peoples' Day | US-AK, US-AL, US-CA, US-HI, US-IA, US-LA, US-ME, US-MI, US-MN, US-NC, US-NE, US-NM, US-OK, US-OR, US-SD, US-TX, US-VA, US-VT, US-WI |
| Wed, 11 Nov | Wednesday | Veterans Day | Nationwide |
| Thu, 26 Nov | Thursday | Thanksgiving Day | Nationwide |
| Fri, 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
6 further dates are observed in some regions only and are not counted in the working day totals above.
Working days month by month
| Month | Calendar days | Weekend | Holidays | Working days | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 1 | 19 | 152 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 2 | 19 | 152 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| Year | 365 | 104 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 |
Reading these figures
The working day count treats Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, which is the standard working week in United States. 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.
The longest working month is March at 22 days; the shortest is November at 19. That spread of 3 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 Q1, carrying 61 working days across January, February, March.
Compared with 2025, which held 250 working days, 2026 is identical in length.
Against the 204 countries covered here for 2026, United States's 11 nationwide holidays put it below the median of 12, around the 38th percentile. The range across all countries this year runs from 3 to 49.
The holidays produce 8 breaks of three consecutive non-working days or more. The longest runs 3 days, from 17 January 2026 to 19 January 2026, built around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 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.
7 of this year's holidays sit on a different calendar date than in 2025: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labour Day, Columbus Day and others. 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 United States
American federal holidays do not oblige anyone in the private sector to close. They bind federal
agencies and federal employees; everyone else offers time off as a matter of company policy or
collective agreement. The figures here therefore describe the federal calendar, not what any
particular employer does, and the gap between the two is larger in the United States than in most
of the countries covered on this site.
Federal observance does shift for weekends. A holiday falling on a Saturday is observed on the
preceding Friday and one falling on a Sunday on the following Monday, so the federal working year
is fairly stable.
States add their own days, and a few of them are significant regionally. Those are not in the
national count.