How many hours are in a week?

A week in other units

A Monday-to-Friday working week covers 5 days, or 120 hours on the clock. A weekend is 48 hours, from midnight on Friday to midnight on Sunday.

Where the 168 hours go

A typical full-time week, with 8 hours' sleep a night:

GOV.UK says a full-time worker will usually work 35 hours or more a week, but there is no legal definition of full-time. Add a 45-minute commute each way and the free time drops to about 67 hours.

The 48-hour week in the UK

Under the Working Time Regulations, you cannot be made to work more than 48 hours a week on average, normally averaged over 17 weeks. A single week can go over 48 hours as long as the average stays within the limit. You can choose to opt out of the limit, in writing, and you cannot be sacked or treated unfairly for refusing to. Some jobs are excluded, such as the armed forces, emergency services and police, security work and jobs with 24-hour staffing. Workers under 18 cannot work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. Details are on GOV.UK's maximum weekly working hours page.

48 hours is 29% of the week. Four 12-hour shifts reach it exactly, which is why rotas of that kind are often planned over a longer period to keep the average down.

Weeks with 167 or 169 hours

Twice a year a UK week is not 168 hours long on the clock. The week ending Sunday 29 March 2026, when the clocks went forward, had 167 hours. The week ending Sunday 25 October 2026, when they go back, has 169. Night workers on those Sundays work an hour less or an hour more than their rota shows. The dates for each year are on when the clocks change.

Adding up your own hours

To total a week of shifts with breaks taken off, use the hours calculator. For longer spans, see how many hours are in a year, or time a task with the stopwatch.

Frequently asked questions