About 46 million people in the EU miss out on regular leisure activities because they cannot afford them, according to Eurostat. In Greece, more than one in four people face this barrier — the highest share in the bloc.
The figures reveal wide differences across Europe, even between countries with similar income levels.
Several studies link social and leisure participation to better mental well-being and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. Eurostat also highlights the role leisure and social interactions can play in improving quality of life.
So, where are costs most likely to prevent people from taking part, and how much does income explain the gap?
In 2025, the share of people who couldn't afford to participate regularly in a leisure activity ranged from 3.9% in Croatia to 27.3% in Greece, compared with an EU average of 12.1%, according to Eurostat.
Figures cover people aged 16 and over. With about 381 million people in this age group in 2025, this means around 46 million people in the EU faced this financial barrier.
This share was also above 15% in Romania (23.3%), Lithuania (17.9%), Latvia (16.2%), North Macedonia (15.9%) and Hungary (15.8%).
France and Spain are above the EU average
More than 13% of people in France (13.9%) and Spain (13.4%) also reported that cost prevented them from taking part regularly in leisure activities. Switzerland (13%) was also above the EU average.
Germany (11.7%) was just below the EU average. In Italy, regular leisure activities were out of reach for 10.7% of people because of the cost.
Czechia (4.1%), Luxembourg (5.4%), Norway (5.7%) and Slovakia (5.7%) were also close to Croatia (3.9%) at the lower end.
The share was also higher than in Croatia in the Nordic EU countries: Denmark (10.4%), Sweden (9.7%) and Finland (7.9%).
Elsewhere, it stood at 6.7% in the Netherlands, 8.7% in Turkey and Portugal, 9.2% in Ireland and 9.7% in Belgium.
Leisure activities are less affordable for women
Except for Malta, where the difference was slight at 0.1 percentage point, leisure activities were less affordable for women than men. In the EU, the share was 13% among women, compared with 11.1% among men.
The gender gap was particularly large in several countries: 5.1 percentage points (pp) in Lithuania, 4.7 pp in Romania, 3.9 pp in Denmark and 3.7 pp in France.
Is income linked to leisure affordability?
Analysis by Euronews Business covering 33 European countries shows that income plays a role, but it does not tell the whole story. There is a moderate link between median income and the share of people who miss out on regular leisure activities because of the cost. Income data come from Eurostat and show median equivalised income in purchasing power standards (PPS).
Income accounts for less than a fifth of the variation between countries. Czechia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had almost identical median incomes, all between 17,097 and 17,190 PPS. Yet only 4.1% of people in Czechia couldn't afford to take part regularly in a leisure activity, compared with 10.7% in Estonia, 16.2% in Latvia and 17.9% in Lithuania.
The same pattern appeared among wealthier countries. France and Cyprus had virtually the same median income, at 23,792 and 23,782 PPS, respectively. But the share of people facing this financial barrier was more than twice as high in France (13.9%) as in Cyprus (6.3%).
Greece had the highest rate at 27.3%, with a median income of 13,612 PPS. Turkey (8.7%) and Serbia (9.9%) had lower incomes but much lower rates. Croatia, Czechia and Slovakia had some of the lowest rates despite incomes below the EU median of 22,638 PPS.
The role of inequality within countries
Across the EU, people below the poverty line were more than three times as likely to miss out on regular leisure activities as those above it, with 29% unable to afford them.
While inequality within countries may play a role, Euronews Business analysis finds only a weak link between income inequality and leisure affordability, which is not statistically significant.
The analysis uses Eurostat’s Gini coefficient, a measure of how unevenly income is distributed.
How people answer the survey may affect the results
How people answer the survey matters. A Eurostat working paper by Anne-Catherine Guio and colleagues found that “poor people may report that they do not want things, simply because they cannot afford them”. They found that leisure was the item most often not seen as a necessity.
What is a leisure activity?
According to Eurostat, leisure activities include sport, cinema and concerts, among others, and should take place outside the home. These activities involve spending money on entrance fees or travel, such as for swimming; on equipment, such as a bicycle; or on participation in organised activities, such as football club fees.