Does geography play a role in determining how often people call in sick?

The amount of sick days that individual workers take within a year differs wildly from one country to another, indicating that geography apparently does have some bearing on whether a worker is more likely to call in sick. In Germany, for instance, about 18 percent workers reporting taking a sick day within a 12-month period, while the figure stood at about 8 percent in Ireland. In Poland, the average number of sick day is 26 days a year, while in the United States, the figure stands at five days.