Croatia Hosts Fifteen Times as Many Tourist Nights per Person as Romania
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 05 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2024
- Last updated
- 07 September 2026
Key estimates
- The EU recorded 6,726 tourist nights per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024 — about 6.7 nights per resident.
- Croatia records 24,248 per 1,000, or 24.2 nights per inhabitant, the highest in the Union.
- Romania records 1,585 per 1,000, fewer than 1.6 nights per inhabitant.
- The ratio between Croatia and Romania is 15 to one.
- Foreign visitors account for more than 90% of nights in Croatia, Cyprus and Malta, and under 20% in Germany, Poland and Romania.
Measuring tourism against the population that hosts it
Counting tourist nights in absolute terms produces a ranking of large countries: Spain, France, Italy and Germany host the most because they are big. Dividing by resident population asks a different question — how much tourism a country absorbs relative to its own size — and produces a different ranking.
Across the EU there were 6,726 nights spent in tourist accommodation per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, about 6.7 nights per resident per year.
The Adriatic and the islands
Croatia records 24,248 nights per 1,000 inhabitants: 24.2 nights for every person living there. Malta follows at 20,091 and Cyprus at 18,533, then Greece at 14,741 and Austria at 14,325.
Croatia's position is not a matter of hosting the most visitors. Spain and France host far more people. It is that Croatia has 3.8 million residents and a coastline that receives a large share of the Adriatic's summer traffic, so the same volume lands on a much smaller population.
Austria in fifth is the entry that breaks the coastal pattern. It has no coast and a winter season rather than a summer one, and reaches nearly the same intensity by a different route.
The low end
Romania records 1,585 nights per 1,000 inhabitants, Latvia 2,498, Poland 2,666, Slovakia 2,704 and Lithuania 2,994.
Romania is a country of 19 million people with recognised tourism assets, and it registers under a tenth of Croatia's intensity. The distance between the two is a factor of fifteen.
Who the visitors are
The composition matters as much as the volume. Foreign visitors account for 90.7% of nights in Croatia, 92.5% in Cyprus and 93.7% in Malta — these are export industries in the strict sense, earning money from outside the country.
At the other end, foreign visitors account for 19.3% of nights in Germany, 18.8% in Poland and 16.3% in Romania. Most tourism in those countries is domestic: residents travelling within their own borders, which redistributes spending rather than bringing it in.
That distinction is why tourism intensity and tourism as an export are not the same ranking. Germany hosts a very large number of nights and earns comparatively little foreign currency from them, which is consistent with its position as one of the five Member States running a services trade deficit.
Tourist nights per 1,000 inhabitants, 2024
| Country | nights per 1,000 inhabitants | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Croatia | 24,248 | +17,522.0 |
| Malta | 20,091 | +13,365.4 |
| Cyprus | 18,533 | +11,807.1 |
| European Unionaggregate | 6,726 | — |
| Poland | 2,666 | −4,059.3 |
| Latvia | 2,498 | −4,227.9 |
| Romania | 1,585 | −5,140.2 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Registered accommodation only
- The indicator counts nights in hotels, holiday accommodation and campsites that report to statistical authorities. Stays with friends and relatives, second homes and unregistered lets are excluded, and the size of that gap differs between Member States.
- Nights are not spending
- A night in a campsite and a night in a city hotel count the same. This measure says nothing about what visitors spend, so it is not a ranking of what tourism is worth to an economy.
- Population as denominator
- Dividing by resident population is what makes small countries rank high. That is the intended comparison, but it means the ranking partly reflects country size and should not be read as a measure of tourism industry scale.
- A single season can move a country
- For the Mediterranean Member States, most nights fall in a few summer months, making the annual figure sensitive to weather, exchange rates and events in that one season.
Frequently asked questions
- Which EU country has the most tourism per inhabitant?
- Croatia, with 24,248 nights per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024 — 24.2 nights for every resident. Malta at 20,091 and Cyprus at 18,533 follow.
- How many tourist nights does the EU record per person?
- About 6.7 per inhabitant per year, or 6,726 nights per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024. Eleven Member States are above that figure and sixteen below it.
- Which EU country has the least tourism per inhabitant?
- Romania, at 1,585 nights per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024 — under 1.6 per resident, and about a fifteenth of Croatia's intensity. Latvia and Poland follow.
- Where does tourism bring in the most foreign money?
- Foreign visitors account for over 90% of nights in Malta, Cyprus and Croatia, making tourism an export industry there. In Germany, Poland and Romania under 20% of nights are foreign, so most tourism is domestic travel that redistributes spending within the country rather than bringing it in.
Methodological note
Eurostat publishes nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments covering hotels, holiday and other short-stay accommodation, and campsites. This study uses the figure per 1,000 inhabitants for all visitors, and separately the share of nights accounted for by non-residents.
Values are for 2024, the most recent year with complete coverage of the 27 Member States at the extraction date.
Nights per inhabitant, the ratio between Croatia and Romania, and the counts of Member States above and below the EU figure are derived by Silver Data Lab from the published values. The comparison with the services trade balance draws on the companion study in the international trade category.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments
tour_occ_ninat
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · c_resid=TOTAL · unit=P_THAB · nace_r2=I551-I553 · time=2024
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-02
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