You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
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.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Sample answer:
The bar chart compares how consumers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan allocated different shares of total spending to categories such as food, housing, and transportation in 2009.
We can see that the United States had the highest housing expenditure share, 26% of total expenditures in 2009. The United Kingdom and Japan followed, with 24% and 22%, respectively. Canada had the lowest housing share at 21%. Housing was the largest expenditure component in all countries except Japan.
By contrast, Canada had the largest transportation share of all four countries at 20%. The United States and the United Kingdom had the next-highest transportation shares, 17% and 15%, respectively. Japan had the lowest, at 10%.
However, in Japan, consumers spent 23% of their total expenditures on food in 2009. The United Kingdom had the second-highest share at 20%. Canada, with 15%, and the United States, with 14% had the lowest food expenditure shares among the countries studied.
Overall, the data indicates that housing and health care shares of total expenditures were higher in the United States than in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan in 2009, whereas Americans had the lowest clothing share. Canada had the highest clothing and transportation shares, and Japan had the highest food share, among the countries compared.
196 words.
