How many people does one 24/7 post need?
The usual answer is a rule of thumb: take the hours and add a quarter for absence. The real answer is national. The same round-the-clock position needs 4.47 employees in the United States and 6.15 in France, and none of that gap comes from the roster.
17 countries · 144 cited sources · computed for 2026
One position, staffed every hour of 2026
Listed alphabetically rather than ranked. The sickness figures behind these numbers come from different national measurement systems, so a country with a lower relief factor here does not necessarily have a healthier workforce than one above it.
| Country | Contracted week | Statutory leave | Available hours | Relief factor | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 38.5h | 25d | 1,636 | 5.36 | 6 |
| Belgium | 38h | 20d | 1,600 | 5.48 | 6 |
| Canada | 39.1h | 10d | 1,806 | 4.85 | 5 |
| Denmark | 37h | 25d | 1,601 | 5.48 | 6 |
| France | 35h | 25d | 1,425 | 6.15 | 7 |
| Germany | 38.2h | 20d | 1,653 | 5.3 | 6 |
| Ireland | 38.8h | 20d | 1,715 | 5.11 | 6 |
| Italy | 38.9h | 20d | 1,756 | 4.99 | 5 |
| Netherlands | 37.2h | 20d | 1,621 | 5.41 | 6 |
| Norway | 37.5h | 21d | 1,595 | 5.5 | 6 |
| Poland | 40h | 20d | 1,722 | 5.09 | 6 |
| Portugal | 39h | 22d | 1,615 | 5.43 | 6 |
| Spain | 38.4h | 22d | 1,650 | 5.31 | 6 |
| Sweden | 40h | 25d | 1,708 | 5.13 | 6 |
| Switzerland | 41.7h | 20d | 1,892 | 4.63 | 5 |
| United Kingdom | 37.5h | 28d | 1,692 | 5.18 | 6 |
| United States | 40h | 0d | 1,961 | 4.47 | 5 |
How this is worked out
A relief factor is coverage hours divided by the hours one employee is genuinely available. The first half is easy: one position staffed continuously is 8,766 hours a year. The second half is where the national differences live. Start from the weekdays in the year, take out public holidays that fall on a weekday, statutory paid annual leave, average sickness absence, and an allowance for training, then multiply what is left by the length of a contracted day.
Two of those inputs trip people up often enough to be worth naming. The contracted week is not the statutory maximum: in several countries the legal figure is a ceiling on what someone may be asked to work, not a description of a full-time contract, and using it as capacity understates the headcount. And in the United Kingdom the statutory leave entitlement already absorbs public holidays rather than sitting on top of them, so deducting both would charge the same days twice.
Every figure carries a source except one. The training allowance is a stated planning assumption, kept low on purpose so the relief factor reads as a floor. Statutory leave is a floor too, and each country page shows what the answer becomes at more generous entitlements.
Countries that are missing, and why
Japan, South Korea, Australia and Brazil are absent because no national sickness absence series could be sourced for them. Japan and South Korea have no statutory paid sick leave, so short illness is taken out of annual leave and never recorded anywhere, and the OECD series that covers most of this list excludes both. Greece has a figure, but the OECD source puts it second lowest of 31 countries at a fifth of a week a year, which cannot carry a roster. A relief factor is only as good as its weakest input, so those pages wait for data rather than run on an estimate.
What it does not tell you
A relief factor sizes a post across a year. It does not check whether the pattern you build on top of it is legal or survivable: rest between shifts, consecutive nights, and weekend distribution are separate constraints, and a roster can satisfy the headcount while failing all three. The rotation patterns cover the shapes that fit, and the coverage math covers headcount for a whole team rather than a single post.
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