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 regions. These essential areas consumed a significant portion of spending in each country, leaving less for other categories.
Notably “Housing” emerged as the spending category for residents. The United States had the share of expenditure at over 25% followed by the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada with approximately 23%, 21% and 20% respectively. On the other hand Japan allocated a percentage towards food at around 23% with the UK ranking second in this category at 20%. The proportion spent by the US and Canada did not exceed 15%. Interestingly Canada and the US dedicated a share of their budgets to transportation compared to Japan and the UK – with figures standing at 20% and 17% respectively.
Conversely health and clothing received allocations of spending which never exceeded than 7% in any region. However expenditures on “Clothing” exhibited consistency across all nations. In terms of their expenditures Canada and the UK allocated 5% of their budget to clothing with Japan lagging behind at 4%. The United States on the other hand devoted the portion of its budget to clothing only 3%.