The Dutch work the fewest hours of all OECD nations

The Dutch have the shortest average working hours of all OECD nations, according to new figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Over the past 12 years, citizens in all OECD nations have tended to work fewer and fewer hours, but given the relatively robust state of their economy, the Dutch appear to fared particularly well for themselves: in 2011, Dutch people with jobs worked an average of just 1.379 hours.

On the opposite end of the scale, Mexicans logged the most time at the office, working an average of 2.250 hours per year, followed by Korea (2.090), Chile (2.047), and Greece (2.032) as the European country with the longest average working hours.

That hours spent in the office mustn't be the root cause of the European economic crisis is further underscored by the figures from other European countries with struggling economies: Ireland (1.543), Italy (1.774) and Portugal (1.711), all have populations who work on average more than economic stalwarts like the Netherlands, Germany (1.413) and France (1.476).

You can view the full table of OECD data for average annual hours actually worked per worker here.