Greeks Can’t Afford One-week Annual Holiday Away from Home

Over half of the population in Greece cannot afford a one-week annual holiday away from home, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Monday.

Eurostat’s data revealed that around a third (32.9 percent) of the European Union population are unable to afford vacationing away from home for a week, with the highest proportion in Romania (66.6 percent) and Croatia (62.8 percent). Over half the population in Bulgaria (56.4 percent), Greece (53.6 percent), Cyprus (53.5 percent in 2015) and Hungary (50.7 percent) were also in this position.

Lowest proportion in Sweden

Sweden (8.2 percent), ahead of Luxembourg (13.1 percent in 2015), Denmark (13.7 percent), Finland (14.2 percent), Austria (15.4 percent) and the Netherlands (16.2 percent) were the EU Member States with the lowest percentage of people unable to afford such a one-week holiday.

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

The most notable decrease was registered in Latvia (from 63.4 percent in 2011 to 37.1 percent in 2016, or -26.3 percentage points – pp), followed by Poland (-19.3 pp), Estonia (-18.6 pp), Bulgaria (-16.9 pp), Malta (-16.7 pp) and Hungary (-15.6 pp).

At EU level, the share of 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 percent to 32.9 percent.