More Than a Third of Portugal's Residents Still Cannot Afford a Week Away, Well Above the EU Average

Portugal spent the summer counting record numbers of foreign visitors. Yet for a large share of the people who live here, a week away is out of reach. Fresh Eurostat figures published on 30 July show that across the European Union, 27.5% of people aged 16 or over could not afford one week of annual holiday away from home in 2025 — and Portugal sits well above that line.

The EU-wide share edged up 0.5 percentage points on 2024, though it remains 7.7 points below where it stood a decade ago, in 2015. The spread between countries is stark. Romania topped the table at 61.4%, followed by Greece at 46.6%, with Bulgaria and Hungary tied at 39.1%. At the comfortable end sat Luxembourg (10.6%), Sweden (12.4%) and the Netherlands (12.8%).

Where Portugal stands

Portugal's most recent national reading, for 2024, was 35.2% — more than a third of residents unable to fund a week's break. That places the country among the highest in Western Europe and firmly above the EU average, in the same band as central and eastern member states with far lower headline incomes.

There is, at least, a downward trend. The Portuguese figure has fallen from 38.9% in 2023 to 35.2% in 2024, tracking a gradual easing in material deprivation as employment has held up and wages have edged higher. But the pace is slow, and the gap to the EU average has proved stubborn.

The tourism paradox

The numbers land awkwardly against Portugal's image abroad. This is a country that drew more than 30 million visitors last year and where tourism is a pillar of the economy — yet the inability to afford a holiday is one of the standard markers statisticians use to measure poverty and material hardship. Being unable to take a week off, in other words, is less about wanderlust than about whether a household has any financial slack at all.

That squeeze shows up elsewhere in the data: the same surveys find close to 40% of the population living in households that could not cope with an unexpected expense or replace worn-out furniture. Holidays are simply the most visible casualty of thin household budgets.

What this means for expats

• Two Portugals: the cost base that makes the country attractive to foreign residents and tourists coexists with real domestic hardship — worth remembering when reading upbeat economic headlines.
• Wage pressure is political: the affordability gap is one reason the 2027 minimum-wage debate carries such weight.
• Local demand is fragile: businesses reliant on Portuguese customers, not just visitors, are exposed to these tight budgets.

The holiday figure is a useful reality check beside Portugal's headline growth. It sits alongside a poverty rate stalled at 15.4% and the government's deliberations over a higher 2027 minimum wage. It also frames the industry's own pivot: Portugal is shifting its tourism strategy from volume to value even as record visitor numbers mask a squeeze on restaurants and hotels.