Six in 10 Romanians, or 66.6%, could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home in 2016, according to Eurostat data. This is a slight drop from the 67.6% reported in 2015, and the 69.5% in 2014. It is also the highest percentage in the EU.

Croatia follows Romania closely, with 62.8% of the residents unable to afford such a vacation. In Bulgaria, the percentage stood at 56.4%, in Greece at 53.6%, in Cyprus at 53.5% in 2015 and in Hungary at 50.7%.

At the opposite end, only 8.2% of the residents of Sweden could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home, the lowest percentage in Europe. Luxembourg came second after, with only 13.1% of residents who could not afford a yearly seven-day holiday in 2015. The group of EU member states with the lowest percentage of people unable to afford such a one-week holiday also includes Denmark with 13.7%, Finland with 14.2%, Austria with 15.4%, and the Netherlands with 16.2%.

Overall, more households with dependent children (34.6%) than those without (31.3%) cannot afford a one-week holiday.

At an EU level, the share of the population who could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home decreased by 5.1 percentage points between 2011 and 2016, from 38.0% to 32.9%.

Over the last five years, the proportion unable to afford a one-week annual holiday away from home decreased in all the member states, except Cyprus (from 47.6% in 2011 to 53.5% in 2015), Denmark (from 10.5% in 2011 to 13.7% in 2016) and Greece (from 51.2% in 2011 to 53.6% in 2016).

editor@romania-insider.com