When it comes to annual leave, you might feel like you have very little compared with employees in certain other countries. But even those with more paid vacation days can feel like they’re not getting enough days off, according to a survey by Expedia.

Workers in France enjoy an average of 31 leave days a year – considerably more than those in Japan (19), Canada (19) and Mexico (16). Meanwhile, those in the US have an average of 12 vacation days.

Still, a large number of French people feel that they don’t have enough days off: 69% of those surveyed by Expedia believe they are being short-changed, compared with only 62% of employees worldwide.

So, how can this feeling be explained? First of all, there are cultural differences: the French feel that paid vacations are a basic right, unlike in the UK (93% vs 83%), whereas Americans see them as more of a luxury.

The French also tend to split up their vacation time, spreading it throughout the year, which may explain why they often feel they don’t take full advantage of their leave with a longer break.

Generally, workers in Japan feel the least deprived when it comes to vacations: only 53% say they don’t get enough time off. This could be explained by the fact that Japanese workers tend to regularly go on short getaways that allow them to break away from the daily grind at lower cost.

Indeed, Japanese employees don’t go on vacation on a whim: they make the most of public holidays, and office and school closures, to get away from work for as long as possible without having to take many days off.

If this strategy works, it shows just how reluctant workers in Japan can be to take full advantage of their vacation capital. Most of them do not take all the days off provided for in their contracts: on average, they forgo seven days’ leave a year, for fear of reprisals.

And they aren’t the only ones: employees in France, Germany, Mexico and the UK generally have two days of unused leave left over each year, compared with three for those in Australia and New Zealand.

But that would be unheard of in Hong Kong, where workers tend to take full advantage of their 26 days’ annual vacation, leaving no days unused.

The latest edition of Expedia’s “Vacation Deprivation” report is based on research conducted among 11,580 respondents in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.