According to a United Nations study, U.S. workers topped the world's productivity for 2002. U.S. productivity growth in 2002 averaged 2.2% compared to 1% in Europe and 1.1% in Japan. Higher productivity in the U.S. is a result of Americans working relatively long weeks and taking fewer holidays than workers in other countries. The study also showed that technology was a critical factor in productivity, as more developed countries were able to achieve much higher productivity than less developed countries.