Portugal is the fourth EU country with the longest working hours

Portugal was the fourth country in the European Union with the longest working hours in 2024. 9.2% of workers worked 49 hours or more per week, above the European average of 6.6%, according to Eurostat.

According to data released this Thursday by Eurostat, 6.6% of people employed in the EU between the ages of 20 and 64 in 2024 had long working hours, defined as 49 hours or more per week.

According to the European statistics office, the percentage of European workers in this situation has decreased over the years, “falling from 9.8% in 2014 to 8.4% in 2019”.

Portugal is above the EU average, being the fourth country in the European Union (EU) with the highest percentage of hours worked: 9.2% of workers aged between 20 and 64 worked 49 hours or more per week last year.

Among the remaining Member States, Greece is the country with the highest percentage of workers with long working hours (12.4%), followed by Cyprus and France.

At the opposite pole, that is, with the lowest rate, is Bulgaria (0.4%), followed by Latvia (1.0%) and Lithuania (1.4%).

According to Eurostat, the percentage of self-employed workers who worked long hours (27.5% of all self-employed workers) was higher than that of employees (3.4% of all employees).