Public holidays in United Kingdom 2026
Every nationwide public holiday in United Kingdom in 2026 — 5 dates, each with its weekday.
Last reviewed 7 July 2026
The United Kingdom has 5 nationwide public holidays in 2026. That figure covers the whole country only: Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales each add their own regional holidays on top, so most residents actually get more days off than the national count suggests, and exactly how many depends on where they live.
The shape of the year
The first nationwide holiday is Good Friday, on Friday 3 April 2026. The last is St. Stephen’s Day, falling on Monday 28 December. Between the Spring Bank Holiday and Christmas Day there’s a run of 214 days with no nationwide holiday at all, the longest gap in the year and one that lands squarely across the whole of autumn.
Weekday luck in 2026
How holidays fall against the calendar varies year to year, and 2026 is a reasonably kind one. Three of the five nationwide holidays fall on a Monday, extending the weekend by design. Two fall on a Friday, doing the same from the other side. None fall on a Saturday or Sunday in 2026, so nobody nationwide loses a holiday to the weekend calendar this year. Where a holiday does land on a weekend, whether it’s replaced by a weekday off depends entirely on local rules, and those rules differ from place to place, so it’s worth checking the specific rule for your own location rather than assuming one applies everywhere.
Dates below are drawn from the Nager.Date open holiday dataset as of this page’s review. Some dates, particularly those tied to religious calendars or set by government decision, can still be adjusted after publication, so treat the table as the current record rather than a permanent fixture.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Local name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Good Friday | ||
| Monday | Early May Bank Holiday | ||
| Monday | Spring Bank Holiday | ||
| Friday | Christmas Day | ||
| Monday | St. Stephen's Day | Boxing Day |
Scope: nationwide public holidays only (regional holidays excluded). Most countries add regional holidays on top of these — this table lists only the dates the whole country shares.
Questions people ask
How many bank holidays does the UK have in 2026?
Five bank holidays are common to the whole UK in 2026, according to the Nager.Date open dataset as of this review. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each add their own holidays on top of those five, and each nation's calendar differs. So the actual number you get depends on where in the UK you live, and it will be higher than five for everyone.