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. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart compares the US, Canada, the

UK

, and Japan in terms of their spending in five essential categories, including

food

, housing,

transportation

, health care and clothing, in 2009.

Overall

, what stands out from the graph is that the cost of housing in the US was the highest during the period shown on the chart. Another striking feature is the increase in

food

spending across four countries,

conversely

, housing and healthcare expenditures dropped slightly. In 2009, residents of the United States spent most of their money on housing and

transportation

, with around 26% and just under 18%, in comparison to

food

, which accounts for nearly half the percentage spent on housing, approximately 13%. Over the same period, the figure for health care and clothing took a small proportion, with around 7% and below 5% respectively. Canada witnessed a comparable trajectory to that of the US, housing,

transportation

, and

food

were the top three consumption, close to 21% , 20% , and 15% respectively.

By contrast

, only 6% and below 5% of money was used on buying clothes and taking care of health. Throughout the year, the respective percentages of purchases in housing,

food

and

transportation

in the

UK

were close to 24% , 20% , and 15%, experiencing the same situation as that of the US and Canada. By 2009, the expenditures on healthcare in the

UK

were the lowest compared to the other three countries, at around 2%,

while

the citizens in the

UK

spent around 6 % on clothing. In Japan, most of the expenses were directed toward

food

and housing, both approximately 23%.

On the other hand

, the cost of

transportation

, at 10%, was almost double both healthcare and clothing, standing at only 5% for each.