Newsroom
About one in five workers in the European Union worked weekends in 2025, according to new figures from Eurostat, with Cyprus recording one of the highest shares.
The data shows that 21.3% of employed people aged 15 to 64 across the EU usually worked on weekends.
Cyprus is among the countries where weekend work is most common. 31.3% of employees in Cyprus reported working weekends, placing the country second in the EU after Greece (31.5%) and ahead of Malta (29.2%).
The lowest shares were recorded in Lithuania (3.0%), Poland (4.2%) and Hungary (6.2%).
Weekend work concentrated in specific jobs
Across the EU, weekend work is most common in certain occupations. Nearly half of service and sales workers (47.6%) and skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (47.2%) usually worked weekends. The share for elementary occupations was 25.7%.
In total, about 21% of all employed people worked weekends in 2025.
Self-employed more likely to work weekends
There is a clear difference by employment status. Only 18.5% of employees usually worked weekends.
The shares were higher among the self-employed:
- 45.8% of self-employed people with employees
- 35.9% of self-employed people without employees
- 45.1% of contributing family workers
Among self-employed people with employees, Greece recorded the highest share at 75.0%, followed by Belgium (65.9%) and France (61.0%). The lowest shares were in Hungary (9.9%), Slovakia (15.0%) and Poland (15.1%).
