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Hey there, I\u2019m your Holiday Little Assistant! Not too long ago, one of my buddies came to me all curious about a pretty simple-sounding question: how many holidays are there in a year in the US? You\u2019d think it\u2019s a quick answer, right? Well, it turned out to be a bit more interesting once you get into it. So I figured I\u2019d put together a nice little breakdown for everyone out there scratching their heads about this. Listen up, because I\u2019m about to break down exactly how the holiday count works in America, and trust me, there\u2019s way more going on than you might think. <\/p>\n
Alright, let\u2019s start with the basics. The United States doesn’t have one single official list that everyone follows. The federal government sets up a bunch of holidays that apply to federal employees, and most businesses, schools, and state governments kind of follow along \u2014 but they don\u2019t have to. So when people ask \u201chow many holidays in a year in US,\u201d you usually hear that there are 11 federal holidays. But hold on, that\u2019s not exactly the full story. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thing: there are 11 federal holidays that are recognized by the federal government, and these are the ones that most people know about. You\u2019ve got New Year\u2019s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents\u2019 Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Oh, and I can\u2019t forget Inauguration Day, but that one only comes around every four years and only for folks in the DC area, so we don’t really count it in the yearly lineup. So yeah, if you\u2019re just counting the standard ones, it\u2019s 11. <\/p>\n
But here\u2019s where it gets a little messy. Those 11 federal holidays are a big deal for government workers and some private companies, but not every single company in the country gives you all 11 days off. Some give you more, some give you less. And then there\u2019s a whole bunch of other holidays that you\u2019ll see on a calendar \u2014 like Easter, Valentine\u2019s Day, St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Halloween, even stuff like Earth Day and National Donut Day. Those are the \u201cunofficial\u201d holidays that people celebrate and have fun with, but they\u2019re not usually paid days off for workers. So if you\u2019re trying to get a total count of every holiday people actually celebrate in the US, the number goes way beyond 11. Some folks will say there are like 20, 30, or even 50 different holidays throughout the year if you count all the silly and small ones. <\/p>\n
Also, don\u2019t forget that each state gets to add its own holidays. For example, Texas has a special day for remembering the Battle of San Jacinto, and Hawaii has King Kamehameha Day. So the number of official state holidays can vary depending on where you live. That means someone in Massachusetts might get a day off that someone in Oregon doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s all pretty localized. <\/p>\n
And get this \u2014 there\u2019s actually no law in the US that says private employers have to give you any paid holidays at all. The federal holidays only apply to federal employees. Most companies choose to give their workers those days off because it\u2019s standard practice, but technically they could say \u201cnope, you\u2019re working on Thanksgiving\u201d and still be fully legal. That\u2019s part of why the number of holidays you actually get off can be totally different from someone working at a different company down the street. <\/p>\n
So if your question is more about paid days off, the average American worker gets about 8 to 10 paid holidays per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That\u2019s fewer than the 11 federal ones because many employers don\u2019t recognize Columbus Day or maybe Veterans Day, or they combine things like \u201cfloating holidays\u201d instead. Some companies are super generous and give you like 12 or 13, while others just do the bare minimum, like maybe 6. So it\u2019s really all over the place. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s answer a few of the most common things people wonder about. First off, are there ever years with 12 federal holidays? Yes! Like I said, Inauguration Day only happens on January 20 of the year after a presidential election, and since 2021 it\u2019s become a federal holiday for federal workers. So if you\u2019re a federal employee in 2025, you actually get 12 paid holidays that year because Inauguration Day falls within the year. But for the general public, that doesn\u2019t really change things at all. <\/p>\n
Another question people ask \u2014 what about Christmas Eve or New Year\u2019s Eve? Those are super popular days to be off, but again, they\u2019re not federal holidays. Some companies give you a half-day or the whole day off as a holiday bonus, but it\u2019s not guaranteed. And the same goes for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is famous as a shopping day but again, it\u2019s not an official federal holiday. Many businesses close anyway, and some give their staff a day off, but it\u2019s not universal. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the whole \u201cbank holiday\u201d thing. You might hear that term and think it\u2019s a special family of holidays. Nope, banks are just required by law to close on federal holidays, and they also close on some extra days set by their state. So \u201cbank holidays\u201d are basically the same as federal ones, plus whatever extra days the bank decides to take off. For most regular people, that doesn\u2019t mean anything special \u2014 unless you need to go to the bank and it\u2019s closed! <\/p>\n
Finally, I gotta say \u2014 the idea of \u201chow many holidays in a year in the US\u201d is one of those questions that doesn\u2019t have a single clean answer. If you\u2019re talking about federal holidays, it\u2019s 11 (or 12 in some years). If you\u2019re talking about what the average worker gets off, it\u2019s around 8 to 10. If you\u2019re talking about all the holidays celebrated in some way, shape, or form, then you\u2019re looking at over 30, honestly. It just depends on what you mean. <\/p>\n
So to wrap it all up \u2014 when someone says \u201chow many holidays are in a year in the US\u201d and you want to drop some knowledge on them, just tell them this: officially, there are 11 federal holidays, but the actual number of days people get off can vary like crazy depending on your job, your state, and even your company\u2019s mood. It\u2019s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing here in America. And honestly, that\u2019s kind of the beauty of it. You get to celebrate a ton of fun, weird, and meaningful days all year long, whether you\u2019re off work or not. <\/p>\n
public holiday calendar.COM Thanks for sticking with me through this one, guys. I really hope this article helped clear up exactly how the holiday count works in the US, because I know it can be confusing when you see all these different numbers floating around. If you still have more questions \u2014 like which states have the most holidays or what to do when a holiday falls on a weekend \u2014 just hit me up and I\u2019ll dig into it for you. Catch ya later! <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey there, I\u2019m your Holiday Little Assistant! Not too long ago, one of my buddies came to me all curious about a pretty simple-sounding question: how many holidays are there in a year in the US? You\u2019d think it\u2019s a quick answer, right? Well, it turned out to be a bit more interesting once you…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","slim_seo":{"title":"How Many Holidays Are There in the US in a Year? The Real Answer Might Surprise You - Public Holiday Calendar","description":"Hey there, I\u2019m your Holiday Little Assistant! Not too long ago, one of my buddies came to me all curious about a pretty simple-sounding question: how many holid"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[28653,28654,28651,28652,28650],"class_list":["post-27734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-are-there-11-or-12-holidays-in-america","tag-how-many-paid-holidays-do-americans-get","tag-how-many-us-holidays-per-year","tag-list-of-american-holidays-2024","tag-number-of-federal-holidays-in-usa"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27735,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27734\/revisions\/27735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.publicholidaycalendar.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}