(ANSA) - BELGRADE, AUGUST 1 - More than half of Romanian and Croatian citizens cannot afford a one-week annual holiday away from home. At European Union level, the countries with the highest proportions of individuals in this situation were Romania (58.9%), Croatia (51.3%, provisional data), Greece (51%) and Cyprus (51.0%, provisional data), Eurostat reports. According to the Eu statistical office, around 28.3% of the EU population aged 16 or over could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home in 2018, but the proportion was much higher in 2013 (39.5%). The lowest percentages were recorded in Luxembourg (10.9%, 2017 data) and Sweden (9.7%).

Since 2013, the number of people who could not afford a week of holiday far away from home significantly decreased in several EU member countries, with the largest falls recorded 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), Eurostat added. (ANSA).