Do you go on holiday? Half of Hungarians can’t afford to do so

Budapest, 2017. augusztus 1. Gyerekek hûsölnek medencékben a kánikulában egy belvárosi bérház udvarán Budapesten, a nyolcadik kerületben 2017. augusztus 1-jén. Erre a napra az Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat az összes megyére elsõ-, másod- és harmadfokú figyelmeztetéseket adott ki a hõség miatt, két megyében - Csongrád és Békés - van érvényben a legmagasabb, harmadfokú (piros) figyelmeztetés. MTI Fotó: Balogh Zoltán

According to mno.hu, most people go on their usual, well-deserved holidays at the end of July or in the beginning of August. But based on the data of Eurostat, almost 1/3 (32.9%) of the European Union’s citizens can’t afford a one-week annual holiday.

Regarding the topic, the differences are quite big between the member states of the European Union. The Swedish are the best off, only 8.2% of them have to miss out on vacation. The situation is the worst in Romania and Croatia, where 66.6% and 62% of the population can’t afford to go on a one-week holiday.

Hungary is among the tailenders because 50.7% of the respondents claimed that they couldn’t afford to go on a holiday. This is quite distressing, even though the situation has bettered a lot in the past years, for instance, the rate was 67.3% five years ago.

Chart: www.ec.europa.eu/eurostat

The data is also an important indicator as it is one of the indices of material deprivation. It’s hard to describe poverty with only using money (and the lack of it) as an indicator, this is why material deprivation is used as an expression to describe neediness.

Someone is materially deprived if the person cannot afford at least four of the following nine items:

  • mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, hire purchase installments or other loan payments;
  • one week’s holiday away from home;
  • a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day;
  • unexpected financial expenses;
  • a telephone (including mobile telephone);
  • a colour TV;
  • a washing machine;
  • a car;
  • heating to keep the home adequately warm.

Based on the data of Eurostat, 7.8% of EU members suffer from severe material deprivation. According to last year’s survey, this is true for the 16.2% of the Hungarian population, meaning more than 1.5 million people.

Photo: MTI

ce: ZsK

Source: https://mno.hu/

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