The table compares household expenditure on three categories – Food/Drinks/Tobacco, Clothing/Footwear/Home Accessories, and Leisure/Education – in five countries in 2004. Overall, it is clear that food-related spending accounted for the largest share of household budgets in every country, while leisure and education consistently received the smallest proportion.
Turkey recorded the highest spending on food, drinks, and tobacco, at 32.1%, significantly more than any other nation. Ireland followed with 28.9%, while Portugal and Italy spent moderately lower proportions, at 18.0% and 16.4%, respectively. Finland allocated the least to this category, at just 15.8%.
In terms of expenditure on clothing, footwear, and home accessories, Italy led with 9%, noticeably higher than the other four countries. Turkey and Portugal had identical spending levels of 6.6%, closely matched by Ireland at 6.4%. Finland again recorded the lowest proportion in this category, at 5.4%.
A similar pattern is observed in leisure and education spending, which remained the smallest category across all nations. Turkey spent the most at 4.4%, while Finland and Italy both allocated 3.2% to this area. Portugal’s figure was slightly lower at 2.5%, and Ireland spent the least overall, at just 2.2%.
In summary, although the distribution of household budgets varied between countries, necessities such as food consistently consumed the largest share of expenditure, whereas discretionary items like leisure and education were given minimal priority.