Romanians on the last place in EU regarding holidays leave

Romanians are on the last place in Europe regarding vacations, as 66.6 percent of them couldn’t afford a holiday for a week far from home in 2016, compared with only a third of EU population (32.9 percent), which was in a similar situation, according to the data published this Monday by the European Office of Statistics (Eurostat).

At the EU level, the state members that register the lowest percentage of people who cannot afford a week of holiday/year far from home are: Sweden (8.2 percent), Luxembourg (13.1 percent from 2015), Denmark (13.7 percent), Finland (14.2 percent), Austria (15.4 percent) and Netherlands (16.2 percent).

On the other hand, the EU member states where in 2016 over a half of the population couldn’t afford a week far from home were: Romania (66.6 percent), Croatia (62.8 percent), Bulgaria (56.4 percent), Greece (53.6 percent), Cyprus (53.5 percent in 2015) and Hungary (50.7 percent).

Eurostat says that in the last five years, the share of those who can afford a week of holiday far from home once a year dropped in all the 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 highest drops were in Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Bulgaria, Malta and Hungary.