Which countries work the longest hours?
People who work long hours are more likely to have a stroke, according to new research published in the Lancet medical journal.
Compared with a 35-40 hour working week, those spending up to 48 hours in the office had a 10% increased risk of a stroke, while a 54-hour week saw a 27% increase. Working for more than 55 hours raised the stroke risk by 33%.
This graph shows the average number of hours worked in 2013 (in member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD).
Of all OECD nations, Mexicans worked the longest, putting in 2,237 hours per year, closely followed by South Koreans. At the other end of the scale, Germans worked the least, at 1,363 hours throughout the year.
US workers clocked up a similar number of hours to the OECD average: 1,770. But that’s still an extra 425 hours on average compared with their German colleagues – the equivalent of 53 working days.
Norwegian, Dutch, Danish and French workers join the Germans at the bottom of the table, all working fewer than 1,500 hours in a year.
Have you seen?
Video: New research that improves stroke recovery
How technology will change the way we work
5 global health trends you can’t ignore
To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Author: Paul Muggeridge is Head of Content at Formative Content.
Image: REUTERS/Catherine Benson CRB
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Future of Global Health and Healthcare
Related topics:
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Economic GrowthSee all
Kimberley Botwright
November 4, 2024