Not exactly. The Netherlands had the EU’s shortest average actual working week in 2025, at 31.9 hours, but that figure combines full-time and part-time workers and says nothing about how many days they worked. It is evidence of shorter average hours and widespread part-time work—not proof that the country has adopted a four-day-week schedule or that work-life balance caused the pattern.
What does the 31.9-hour figure measure?
Eurostat’s 2025 figure is the average number of actual hours worked in the main job during a reference week by people aged 20–64 in the Netherlands. It includes full-time and part-time workers, as Eurostat explains in its May 2026 release. The comparable EU average was 35.9 hours in 2025, down from 36.9 in 2015.
“Actual hours” are not the same as a contracted or customary schedule. Eurostat counts extra hours, whether paid or unpaid, but excludes time not worked because of holidays or sickness, as well as commuting. The national average therefore reflects both the hours worked by individuals and the mix of full-time and part-time workers. It does not describe a typical employee’s workweek in days.
Why the four-day-week label is misleading
A four-day week can mean either full-time hours compressed into four longer days or fewer total weekly hours spread across four days. The official figures here measure hours, not workdays, and do not establish that Dutch workers generally follow either arrangement.
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The distinction matters: an average of 31.9 hours could arise from many different combinations of schedules. It is not evidence that the average person works four days, nor that employers or the country have adopted a formal four-day-week policy.
How much does part-time work matter?
Statistics Netherlands’ labor-force table, updated in 2026, counted 4.563 million part-time workers among 9.548 million employed people in 2022. The same table reported mean weekly hours of 32.2 overall, 31.0 for employees and 35.9 for self-employed people without staff. These are 2022 figures from a separate CBS table, not a breakdown of Eurostat’s 2025 average.
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Another measure illustrates why definitions and dates must stay attached to the numbers: the OECD’s 2019 analysis classified 37.4% of Dutch workers as part-time in 2017, using its definition of fewer than 30 usual hours a week in the main job. That is a historical figure based on usual hours, not the same measure as actual hours or CBS’s 2022 categories.
In a separate CBS dashboard, the average worker worked 27.7 hours per week in 2024. CBS describes this as hours actually worked and excludes hours not worked because of leave and sickness. The dashboard’s figure has a different year and statistical presentation from Eurostat’s 2025 figure, so the two should not be treated as a direct comparison.
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Who is working fewer hours—and who carries the costs?
Shorter average hours are not necessarily a uniformly shared benefit. The OECD’s 2023 Netherlands survey, drawing on referenced 2022 data, reported that about 55% of Dutch women worked part-time—nearly three times the rate for Dutch men and more than twice the OECD average for women. The OECD also described an unequal unpaid-work burden and linked it to gaps in earnings, wealth and pensions, as well as slower progression into management.
The OECD’s 2019 report likewise discussed job-quality concerns associated with part-time work, including pay, security, training, promotion and poverty risk. It noted that outcomes vary and that the Netherlands performs comparatively well on some measures, while gender inequalities persist. These findings are historical and should not be read as proof that every part-time worker experiences the same disadvantages.
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Hours statistics also leave unpaid care and housework out of the paid-work measure. CBS’s dashboard reported that 73.2% of people aged 15–74 were employed in 2024 and notes this distinction. A short paid workweek alone cannot show how total workloads, including unpaid work, are distributed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the evidence does—and does not—show
The official statistics support a clear conclusion: Dutch workers averaged fewer actual hours than workers in other EU countries in 2025, and part-time work is an important part of the picture. But the figures do not tell us how many days people work or establish that work-life balance caused the country’s lower average hours. Treating the Netherlands as having broadly adopted a four-day week goes beyond what these measures show.
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