Working Days in 2027: UK Month-by-Month Counts and Bank Holidays

There are 253 working days in 2027 in England and Wales, 252 in Scotland and 251 in Northern Ireland, counting Monday to Friday and excluding bank holidays. The year has 261 weekdays in total. England and Wales have 8 bank holidays on weekdays, Scotland 9 and Northern Ireland 10, all taken from GOV.UK's official bank holiday feed.

Working day counts matter for payroll, project plans, delivery promises, notice periods and pro rata holiday. The tables below give the number of working days in each month of 2027 for each part of the UK, followed by the full list of bank holidays and the method we used, so you can check or adapt the figures for your own working pattern.

To count working days between any two dates, use our free working days calculator, which excludes weekends and the bank holidays for your chosen nation.

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Working days in 2027 by month

Weekdays are Monday to Friday. Working days are weekdays minus bank holidays that fall on a weekday.

By quarter

A few things stand out. May is the shortest month everywhere, with two Monday bank holidays. April, June, September and October have no bank holidays anywhere in the UK. And Easter falls in March in 2027, so March, not April, loses days to Good Friday and Easter Monday.

UK bank holidays in 2027

These dates come from GOV.UK's bank holidays page and its JSON feed.

England and Wales (8)

Scotland (9)

Scotland has no Easter Monday bank holiday, and its summer bank holiday is at the start of August rather than the end. Many Scottish councils also set local holidays, which aren't in the GOV.UK feed, so check with your local authority if your business follows them.

Northern Ireland (10)

Substitute days

When a bank holiday falls on a weekend, a substitute weekday is given instead. In 2027, Christmas Day is a Saturday and Boxing Day a Sunday, so the bank holidays move to Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December across the UK. In Scotland, 2 January is a Saturday, so its substitute is Monday 4 January.

How we counted the working days in 2027

The method is simple enough to repeat for any year or working pattern:

1. List every date in the month and keep only Monday to Friday. 2027 starts on a Friday and, as a non-leap year, has 261 weekdays.
2. Download the official bank holidays from GOV.UK's JSON feed at https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json. It has three divisions: england-and-wales, scotland and northern-ireland, each with a list of events containing a date and title.
3. Filter to 2027 for the division you need. The feed already gives the substitute dates, so you don't need to work them out yourself.
4. Remove any bank holiday that falls on a weekday from your weekday list. In 2027 every bank holiday in the feed falls on a weekday, because the weekend ones have been moved to substitutes.
5. Count what's left for each month.

In a spreadsheet, NETWORKDAYS(start, end, holidays) does the same job if you paste the bank holiday dates into a range. In code, a short script that loops through each day, skips Saturdays and Sundays and skips dates in the feed gives the same totals shown above. Our working days calculator uses the same approach.

Adjusting for your own working pattern

The totals above assume a Monday to Friday week. Adjust for your situation:

• Part-time staff working fixed days should count only their days. A Tuesday to Thursday worker loses no days to Monday bank holidays, which matters for fair pro rata holiday; see our guide to holiday entitlement for part time workers and the holiday entitlement calculator.
• Office closures between Christmas and New Year aren't bank holidays. If you close from 29 to 31 December, subtract another three days in England and Wales.
• Shift and weekend workers need a different count. Bank holidays aren't automatically days off; GOV.UK says employers can choose to include them in statutory leave, and the contract decides whether staff work them.
• Cross-border teams should plan around the differences, such as Easter Monday in Scotland and 12 July in Northern Ireland.

What working day counts are used for

If you're working out pay for a particular month, our guide to take home pay and the take-home pay calculator cover the deductions, and the age calculator is handy for date differences such as length of service.

Make It Flow builds scheduling and admin automations, such as updating delivery promise dates and rota tools from the official bank holiday feed. If your team spends time on this every year, our page for recruitment agencies shows the kind of work we do, or get in touch.

FAQ

How many working days are there in 2027?

There are 261 weekdays in 2027. After weekday bank holidays, that leaves 253 working days in England and Wales, 252 in Scotland and 251 in Northern Ireland. These figures assume a Monday to Friday week and don't include local holidays or company closure days.

How many bank holidays are there in 2027?

England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in 2027, Scotland has 9 and Northern Ireland has 10, according to GOV.UK. All of them fall on weekdays, because Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Scotland's 2 January fall at a weekend and are replaced by substitute days.

When are the Christmas bank holidays in 2027?

Christmas Day 2027 is a Saturday and Boxing Day is a Sunday, so the bank holidays are the substitute days Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December. This applies in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Which month has the fewest working days in 2027?

May has the fewest in every UK nation, with 19 working days, because of the early May and spring bank holidays on 3 and 31 May. In Scotland, January also has 19 working days because of New Year's Day and the substitute holiday for 2 January.

When is Easter 2027?

Good Friday is 26 March 2027 and Easter Monday is 29 March 2027, according to GOV.UK. Good Friday is a bank holiday across the UK. Easter Monday is a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not in Scotland.

Do I get bank holidays off as an employee?

Not automatically. There's no legal right to paid time off on bank holidays beyond your statutory leave. GOV.UK says employers can choose to include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave. Check your contract to see whether you're expected to work them and how they're paid.