By comparison, 13.0% of the population aged 16 or over living in the European Union reported in 2014 not being able to get together with friends/family for a drink or meal at least once a month due to lack of resources, while 17.8% could not afford to regularly participate in a leisure activity.
In Croatia, 4.3% of young people (aged 16 to 24) cannot afford a drink or a meal out, compared to the EU average of 11%, while 6.5% of them are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity, as against 16.3% in the EU.
In Croatia, 8.8% of working age people (aged 25 to 64) cannot afford a drink or a meal with their friends or family (compared to 13.9% in the EU) and 10.5% of them are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (compared to 19.6% in the EU); 10.9% of those aged 65 or over cannot afford a drink or a meal out (compared to 11.2% in the EU), while 7.0% of them are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (compared to 13.5% in the EU).
In neighbouring Slovenia, 8.9% of the population cannot afford a drink or a meal with their friends or family (6.2% of young people, 9.0% of working age people, and 10.4% of the elderly), while 22.2% are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (19.3% of young people, 23.7% of working age people and 18.4% of the elderly).
In Germany, surprisingly, 14.3% of the population cannot afford a drink or a meal out (8.5% of young people, 15.8% of working age people and 12.9% of the elderly), while 12.5% are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (7.6% of young people, 14.2% of working age people and 10.2% of the elderly).
Around one third of the population in Hungary (36.5%), Romania (35.7%) and Bulgaria (30.0%) said they could not afford to get together with friends/family for a drink/meal at least once a month. The elderly in Romania are particularly affected: in the age group over 65, the share there reaches 43.0%. In Hungary, the share is higher among the young (40.0%). High shares were also observed in Greece (20.7%), Malta (19.2%), Ireland (18.4%) and Lithuania (17.4%).
At the opposite end the scale, the share was below 1% in all age groups in Sweden. Less than 5% of the population feel unable to get together with friends/family for a drink/meal at least once a month also in Finland (1.5%), Denmark (3.2%), the Netherlands (3.3%), the Czech Republic (3.4%) and Luxembourg (4.1%).
In EU membership candidate Serbia, 29% of the population cannot afford to get together with their friends or family at least once a month (18.9% of young people, 30% of working age people and 31.1% of the elderly), while 31.4% are not able to regularly participate in a leisure activity (23.1% of young people, 34.7% of working age people and 25.6% of the elderly).