How Many Fridays Are in a Year? 52 or 53
Most years have 52 Fridays and some have 53. See which ones, plus how Friday counts relate to Friday the 13th and four-day weeks.
A year contains 52 Fridays, or 53 when January 1 lands on a Friday.
The Rule Behind Every Answer
A common year is 365 days. Divide by seven and you get 52 weeks with one day left over. That leftover day is the weekday January 1 falls on, and it is the only weekday that occurs 53 times.
A leap year is 366 days: 52 weeks plus two leftover days. Those are the weekdays of January 1 and January 2, and both occur 53 times.
So the answer is never a mystery. Look at what day the year starts on, check whether it is a leap year, and you have it.
Which Years Have 53 Fridays
- 2027 — common year starting Friday
- 2032 — leap year starting Thursday, so January 2 is a Friday
- 2038 — common year starting Friday
2026 begins on a Thursday, so Friday appears 52 times, the first on January 2 and the last on December 25 — Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year.
Fridays and Friday the 13th
Every year has at least one Friday the 13th and never more than three. That count has nothing to do with whether the year has 52 or 53 Fridays; it depends on which weekdays the 13th of each month falls on, which is driven by month lengths. [The full pattern is here](/blog/friday-the-13th).
Compressed Work Weeks
A 53rd Friday matters for organisations on a four-day week or a nine-day fortnight, where Friday is the swing day:
- A 4/10 schedule with Fridays off gains one more day off in a 53-Friday year.
- A nine-day fortnight alternates Fridays, so a 53rd Friday breaks the alternation and forces a manual adjustment at the year boundary.
Payroll on Fridays
Weekly payroll paid on Friday runs 53 times in these years. Biweekly payroll paid on Friday can produce 27 pay periods instead of 26 — a separate and more expensive quirk, covered in [biweekly pay periods in a year](/blog/biweekly-pay-periods-in-a-year).