A comparison of the proportion of the national consumer expenditure on various items in five European countries in 2002 is illustrated in the table. Overall, it can be seen that a large part of consumers preferred to spend more money on food than clothing and leisure.
The greatest proportion of expenditure on food, drinks and tobacco was Turkey, with 32.14%, followed by Ireland with 28.91%. The consumers in Sweden spent 2 times less than that of in Turkey in this sector. Furthermore, Italians and Spanish spent the similar percentage, 16.36% and 18.80% respectively.
A more detailed look at the table revealed that the percentage spent on clothing and footwear was considerably less than 10% for all the countries. By 9%, customers in Italy experienced the largest expenditure in this category, while spending habits ranging from 5.40% to 6.63% for 4 other countries. As for leisure and education, it is obvious that the figure solely depicted at below 5% for all countries. Turkey had the highest percentage of expenditure with 4.35% compared with 1.98% in Spain.
