One in five in Germany can’t afford a weeklong holiday

In the summer, many Germans pack up their socks and sandals and head off to destinations across Europe and around the world. Germans often say that anywhere in the world you go, you can find German tourists. 

With an average of 28 paid vacation days per year, many Germans have ample opportunity to travel. But financial constraints keep vacation out of reach for about one in five Germans.

Across Germany, 21 percent of people live in households that reported they could not afford a week’s vacation last year, according to the Germany's Statistical Office (Destatis). That amounts to 17.4 million people.

Destatis conducts this survey to assess the material and social quality of life of people living in Germany.

The survey asked individuals if they live in a household that could afford to go on vacation for a week in 2024. A vacation could include staying with friends or relatives, or staying at the family’s own vacation home.

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The percentage of people who can afford to go on a weeklong vacation varies greatly across the German states, statistics show.

Bremen had the highest proportion of households that couldn’t afford vacation at around 35  percent. Bavaria had the lowest at under 15 percent. 

Saarland also had a relatively high percentage of residents who couldn’t afford a vacation in 2024, at 28.8 percent.

In Lower Saxony, 25.7 percent of people couldn’t afford to vacation for a week. In Rhineland-Palatinate, it was 24.8 percent, in Thuringia it was 24.2 percent, and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it was 24 percent.

In Berlin, like in Bavaria, fewer than 15 percent of people reported living in households that were unable to afford a week of vacation last year.

In Saxony, the number was 16.4 percent, and in Hamburg it was 18.5 percent.

Some groups struggle more than others to afford vacation

Single parents and single adults without children found it particularly difficult to afford going on vacation in 2024, statistics show.

Destatis found that 38 percent of people living in single-parent households were unable to afford a weeklong holiday. 

Nearly one in three single adults living alone was also unable to afford a week of vacation last year. The same went for two-parent households with three or more children. 

Two-adult households without children were able to afford going on vacation most easily, with only 15 percent of people reporting living in a household that can’t afford a vacation. 

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Germans afford more vacations that people in most European countries

Across the EU, 27 percent of people live in households that could not afford a week’s vacation, according to the European statistics agency Eurostat. 

That number was particularly high in Romania, where nearly 60 percent of people could not afford to go on vacation in 2024. In Bulgaria and Greece, more than 40 percent of people lived in households that could not afford a week of vacation.

In Luxembourg, only 9 percent of people reported being unable to afford a weeklong vacation, and in both Sweden and the Netherlands the number was under 15 percent.