On average, 28% of European citizens won’t t be able to afford even a week of vacation this summer, according to Eurostat. Despite the high percentage, the situation has improved compared to five years ago. In 2013, 39.5% of European citizens over the age of 18 couldn’t afford to spend a week on a vacation.

The leader in this year's ranking is Romania. In Bulgaria’s neighbour, 58.9% of adult citizens will not rest for a week this year. Croatia ranks second with 51.3%, with Greece and Cyprus separating third with 51% each.

Only 9.7% cannot afford a week there.

According to Eurostat Over the last five years, the largest falls in the proportion 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.