The table below gives infomation on consumer spending on different items in five different countries in 2002.

A glance at the table provided reveals information on national consumer expenditure of different items in five different countries in 2002. It can be clearly seen that, in all 5 countries, the consumers spent the most in Food/Drinks/Tobacco and the least in Leisure and Education.

In terms of expenditure on Food/Drink/Tobacco, the percentage of consumer expenditure in Turkey and Ireland constituted the largest with 32.14% and 28.91% respectively, while the corresponding expenditure in Italy and Sweden constituted the least, with 16.36% and 15.77% respectively. However, the consumer expenditure in this category in Spain saw a morderate proportion-18.80% only.

As for expenditure on Clothing/Footwear, the figure of Italy is the largest-9.00%. In other countries, the consumer expenditure in this category only remained relatively low level at approximately 6%. When it comes to Leisure and Education, it is evident that consumers in Turkey spent more in this category than the counterparts in other countries. Comparing to merely 1.98% in Spain and 2.21% in Ireland, the consumers in Turkey invested 4.35% of their expenditure in Leisure and Education while the consumers in Sweden and Italy spent about 3% of their total cost in this category.

Generally, it is interesting to note that consumers in Turkey invested more on Food/Drinks/Tobacco as well as Leisure/Education than those in other countries, while the consumers in Spain seemed to be more frugal in all these three categories.