28% of Europeans cannot afford a 1 week annual holiday

Summer means holiday and travel for a lot of people in the European Union (EU). However, 28.3% of the EU population aged 16 or over could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home in 2018, according to the figures published by the Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat).

The situation has improved a bit compared to the years of the financial crisis: in 2013, the corresponding proportion was 39.5%.

Among the 28 EU Member States, the countries with the highest proportions of individuals who cannot afford a week of holiday were Romania (58.9%), Croatia (51.3%, provisional data), Greece (51%) and Cyprus (51.0%, provisional data).

In contrast, the EU Member States with the lowest percentage of people unable to afford a one week annual holiday in 2018 were Sweden (9.7%), Luxembourg (10.9%, 2017 data) and Denmark (12.2%).

Finland ranks fifth

Finland appears in this ranking in fifth place, with 13.3% of people who cannot afford a few days away from home. The situation in Finland improved compared to the previous year (2017) when 15.4% of the people declared its inability to take one week off. In 2013, the percentage was 14.9%.

Over the last five years, the largest falls in the proportion of population unable to afford a one-week annual holiday away from home were in Bulgaria (down 35.8 percentage points since 2013 to 30.5% in 2018) and in Poland (down 26 percentage points  since 2013 to 34.6% in 2018).

Greece was the only EU Member State in which the proportion increased over the same five-year period, up 2 percentage points to 51.0% in 2018.

The data contained in this information emanates from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions made by the EU Statistical Office.