The bar chart above illustrates how much people in the US, Canada, the UK, and Japan spent on five key categories in 2009.
Overall, transportation, food and housing areas were targeted as a priority across these countries. These essential areas consumed a significant portion of spending in each country, leaving less for other categories.
We can see that “Housing” was represented as the largest segment of residents’ expenditure. The US had the highest spending share reaching over 25%, followed by the UK, Japan, and Canada, whose figures are about 23%, 21%, and 20%, respectively. In contrast, Japan spent most on food, accounting for about 23%, while the UK was second in this category spending 20% of the total. The proportion of the US and Canada spent did not exceed 15%. On the contrary, Canada and the US had the highest percentage of their expenditures in transportation, achieving 20% and 17% respectively, which is higher than in Japan and the UK.
In comparison, the lowest expenditures were left to health and closing areas and were never as high as more than 7% in any of the countries. However, “Clothing” section showed more consistency across the countries. Canada and the UK dedicated around 5% of their spending to clothing, with Japan trailing slightly behind at 4%. The US spent the least on clothing, allocating only 3% of its budget to this category.