Zweden hebben de langste vakanties in Europa (en)

It's 1 July, the holiday season is upon us and if you are Swedish you are probably planning a long holiday according to one German institute.

But if you are from Ireland you may well be counting the days carefully.

This according to the IW economic institute in Germany who have published a survey into which countries take the most days holiday, according to German daily Die Welt.

Top of the sunbathing league are the Swedes, who took 33 days of holiday in 2003, according to the report.

They are closely followed to the beach by the Dutch with 31 days and the Danes with 30 days. Germans take on average 29 days holiday per year.

But the most hard-working citizens in Europe seem to come from Ireland. The report calculates that the Irish took an average of only 20 days holiday.

And the stereotype image of lazy Southern Europeans seems to be contradicted by the Greeks who are second `bottom' of the league, taking 23 days holiday on average in 2003.