Swedish bosses come in fourth in the list of holiday habits, behind the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland on 24, 23 and 22 days respectively.

“There is a big difference in holiday habits in different parts of the world and this does not only apply to bosses,” Peter Bodin at Grant Thornton Sweden said.

The survey also looks at levels of stress among business leaders worldwide.

“Our survey also shows a link between experienced increased stress levels and few holiday days. The longer the holiday, the calmer you feel,” Bodin said.

The survey shows that 14 days is the global average, 20 days within the EU, 11 in South America and Asia/Pacific Rim and 12 in North America.

Africa as a region is omitted from the global statistics but is represented by a firm in South Africa, where business leaders have taken 13 days holiday in the past 12 months.

“We have several partner firms, but not all choose to take part in this survey. South Africa and Botswana are two countries (that form) part of the survey that are on the African continent, but those are too few, to create an index for the African region,” Lisbeth Larsson at Grant Thornton Sweden told The Local on Wednesday.

Of the listed countries Mexico, Vietnam and Taiwan have the lowest amount of holiday, with an average of 7 days taken by business leaders over the past year.

The survey is based on interviews with 7,400 business leaders in private firms who work with Grant Thornton in some capacity in 36 countries worldwide. In Sweden 450 companies with an average of 50-500 staff were surveyed.