Absenteeism rate calculator: the formula, the Bradford factor and what your number means

Your absenteeism rate tells you what share of scheduled working time was lost to unplanned absence. Enter your employees, the working days in the period and the days lost, and the calculator gives you the rate, an optional direct cost and one person's Bradford factor, with the working shown.

What is the absenteeism rate?

It is the days lost to unplanned absence as a share of all the days your people were scheduled to work. Unplanned absence means sickness, unauthorised absence and short-notice leave. It does not include annual leave, public holidays or other leave agreed in advance.

It is a share, not a count. Twenty days lost in a team of five in one month is a lot. Across 500 people, it is very little.

What is the absenteeism rate formula?

• Absenteeism rate (%) = days lost to unplanned absence in the period ÷ (number of employees × working days in the period) × 100.
• Direct cost of absence = days lost × average daily pay cost per employee (optional).

The direct cost is only the pay for the days lost. It misses the indirect costs: cover, overtime and lost output. Treat it as a floor.

Worked example (made-up numbers)

A company has 200 employees. The period is one month with 21 working days. In that month, 168 days were lost to unplanned absence. The average daily pay cost per employee is 1,000, in whatever currency you pay in.

So 4 days in every 100 scheduled were lost. The 168,000 is pay only, before cover, overtime and the work that did not get done.

What is the Bradford factor?

The Bradford factor scores one person's absence so that many short absences weigh more than one long one, because frequent short absences are harder to plan around.

• Bradford factor = S² × D, where S is the number of separate absence spells and D is the total days absent, usually over a rolling 52 weeks.

Two people, each absent for 10 days in the same 52 weeks:

Same days lost, a hundred times the score. That is the design, and also its main weakness.

How do you read your result?

Start with your own trend, and compare the same month year on year, because absence is seasonal. Then compare teams, sites and roles measured the same way.

If you compare outside, name the base. Published figures measure absence in different ways:

• UK, employers' records. The CIPD's Health and wellbeing at work 2025 report found 9.4 days of absence per employee per year, or 4.1% of working time lost. Base: 305 UK organisations that gave absence data, from a YouGov survey of 1,101 HR professionals in March and April 2025, 5% trimmed mean.
• UK, what workers report. The Office for National Statistics put the UK sickness absence rate at 2.0% of working hours lost in 2025, or 4.4 days per worker. Base: the Labour Force Survey, people aged 16 and over in employment. These are official statistics in development.
• US. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an absence rate of 3.2% for full-time wage and salary workers in 2025, and a lost worktime rate of 1.7%. Base: the Current Population Survey, about 121 million full-time wage and salary workers. The absence rate is the share of workers with an absence in the survey week. The lost worktime rate, hours absent as a share of hours usually worked, is closer to your rate. The 2025 figures are 11-month averages: October was not collected.

The two UK figures differ by about two to one, because one averages employers' records and the other asks workers. A benchmark without its base is not worth much.

When we checked in November 2026, we found no official national absence rate for Egypt, Saudi Arabia or the UAE. There is little regional data, so your own trend is the comparison that matters.

What do Bradford factor scores mean?

There is no official threshold. Employers set their own trigger points, and the score bands you see online are other employers' choices, not a standard.

Acas, the UK's public workplace advice service, says there are no legal rules about how or when absence should be reviewed. It also says review points should not trigger disciplinary action automatically.

The formula has a known problem: it can penalise absence caused by a disability or a long-term illness. Someone who needs regular treatment collects many short spells, and the formula squares them. Acas says employers can adjust review points, or not count disability-related or pregnancy-related absence towards them. In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 makes it discrimination to treat a disabled person unfavourably because of something arising from their disability, unless the employer can justify it.

So use the score to start a conversation, never to decide a sanction on its own.

What are the common mistakes?

• Counting planned leave. Annual leave and public holidays are not absenteeism.
• Mixing calendar and working days. Use working days throughout.
• Counting heads when many work part time. Enter full-time equivalents and count days lost on the same basis.
• One number for everything. Report short-term and long-term absence apart. They have different causes and fixes.
• Reading low absence as good news. People who work while unwell do not show up in the rate.

What should you do next?

1. Measure monthly, by team. A company average hides the team where the problem is. 2. Separate short and long spells. Many short absences in one team often point to the work or the manager. Long absences need health support and a planned return. 3. Talk after every absence. Ask how the person is and whether anything at work is making it harder. 4. Look at causes. In the CIPD 2025 survey, minor illness was by far the most common cause of short-term absence, and mental ill health the top cause of long-term absence. If short spells are rising in one team, read our guide to employee burnout. 5. Ask your people, team by team. The GK Engagement Survey shows what people want from work against what they get today. Read it next to your absence figures.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good absenteeism rate?

There is no single good rate. It depends on your sector, your roles and how you count. A good rate is stable or falling against your own past, measured the same way. For the UK in 2025, the CIPD found 4.1% of working time lost and the ONS 2.0%, on different bases.

Does absenteeism include annual leave?

No. Absenteeism counts unplanned absence only: sickness, unauthorised absence and short-notice leave. Annual leave, public holidays and other agreed leave are left out.

What is a bad Bradford factor score?

There is no official bad score. Each employer sets its own trigger points. A high score is a reason to talk to the person, not proof of a problem.

Is the Bradford factor discriminatory?

It can be, if used without care, because it can penalise absence linked to a disability or a chronic illness. Acas says employers can adjust review points or leave disability-related and pregnancy-related absence out of them.

How do you calculate absenteeism rate in Excel?

Put the number of employees in A2, the working days in B2 and the days lost in C2. Type =C2/(A2B2) and format the cell as a percentage. For one person's Bradford factor, put the spells in D2 and the days in E2, and type =D2^2E2.

Sources

• Acas. (2024, November 29). Absence trigger points. acas.org.uk
• CIPD. (2025). Health and wellbeing at work 2025 (survey report, in partnership with Simplyhealth). cipd.org
• Equality Act 2010, c. 15, s. 15 (discrimination arising from disability). legislation.gov.uk
• Office for National Statistics. (2026, May 1). Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2025. ons.gov.uk
• US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Table 47. Absences from work of employed full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and industry, 2025 annual averages. Current Population Survey. Retrieved November 15, 2026. bls.gov