Band 8+: The bar chart below shows shares of expenditures for five major categories in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan in the year 2009.

The bar chart shows the percentage of spending on five things—Food, Housing, Transportation, Health care, and Clothing—in four countries: the US, Canada, the UK, and Japan in 2009.

Overall, Housing was the biggest expense, especially in the US, while Health care was not as important, particularly in the UK.

The chart shows that people spent the most on Housing. The United States had the highest percentage at 26%, followed by the UK, Japan, and Canada. Food and Transportation were the second biggest expenses, but this varied by country. In Japan and the UK, people spent more on food (23% and 20% respectively), but in Canada and the US, transportation was more expensive than food. Interestingly, spending on food in Canada was the same as spending on transportation in the UK, both at 15%.

Clothing and Health care were the third largest expenses, with differences in spending. In the US, more was spent on Health care than on Clothing, but in Canada and the UK, it was the opposite. In Japan, spending on Health care and Clothing was the same.