The table depicts expenditure by consumers on three different
categories in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey in 2002. Overall, consumer spending on food, drinks and tobacco was highest in all five countries followed by clothing and footwear, and leisure and education expenditure was lowest. Looking at the table in more detail, spending on food, drinks and tobacco in Turkey and Ireland accounted for the highest percentages at 32.14% and 28.91% respectively. In contrast, consumer spending on these items was markedly lower in the remaining countries, at 18.80% in Spain, 16.36% in Italy and 15.77% in Sweden.
Moving on to the clothing and footwear category, consumer spending in this sector was highest in Italy at 9%. This was followed by Turkey, Spain and Ireland, which showed similar figures at approximately 6%. Expenditure by consumers on clothes and footwear in Sweden showed the lowest percentage in this category at 5.4%.
In the final category, a notable feature is that consumer expenditure on leisure and education was lowest in all countries. 4.35% of total expenditure was spent on this in Italy, followed by approximately 3% in Sweden and Italy and just 2.21% and 1.98% in Ireland and Spain.