Albania and two other countries rank at the top of the list of European countries for which Eurostat data is available, with the highest percentage of the population unable to go on summer vacation.
More than half of the population was unable to afford holidays in three European countries, Montenegro (58%), Albania (53%) and Turkey (51%), according to an assessment by Eurostat, the European statistics center.
Other neighboring countries, North Macedonia (48%) and Greece (47%) were also close to this level.
It is also an alarming figure, over one in three in Bulgaria (39%), Hungary (39%), Serbia (36%) and Italy (36%).
The percentage of those who could not afford to take a holiday, according to Eurostat, was below the EU average in Portugal (33%), Croatia (33%), Spain (32%), Lithuania (31%), Slovakia (29%), Latvia (29%), Cyprus (28%) and Malta (28%).
More Europeans can afford a week-long vacation, but the trend is not universal. Five countries have seen increases in the percentage of those unable to afford a vacation, including Germany and three Nordic countries.
Summer is the holiday season everywhere, including across Europe, yet in 2025, 27.5% of the EU population aged 16 and over were unable to afford a week’s annual holiday away from home. This figure was 35.2% in 2015, representing a decrease of 7.7 percentage points and a significant improvement in holiday affordability.
In five countries, the share of people who cannot afford a holiday has increased over the past decade, although the increase was small in some cases. These were Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Austria. The three Nordic countries saw the biggest increases, but their rates remained among the lowest in Europe.
Germany and Austria also bucked the broader trend, with around one in five people unable to afford a week-long holiday in 2025. The proportion rose by 1.2 percentage points in Germany and 0.3 points in Austria over the decade.
Comparing the figures for 2015 and 2025, 25 of the 30 countries recorded a decline in the share of people unable to afford a holiday, while five recorded an increase.