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.

The bar chart provides information about the proportions of

costs

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of five major categories in four different countries during 2009.

Overall

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, these percentages exhibited different shares across the given categories; some,

such

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as housing in the United States, recorded the highest figure,

whereas

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others, like healthcare in the United Kingdom, registered the lowest share.

However

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, the proportion of each category varied significantly among them. As the chart illustrates, housing

costs

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in the United States represented the largest share, standing at around 26%, compared with nearly 24% in the UK,

while

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they constituted almost 21% and 20% in Japan and

Canada

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, respectively.

This

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was followed by food expenditures, which recorded roughly 23% and exactly 20% in the United Kingdom;

in addition

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, both the US and

Canada

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were close to 15%. Transportation ranked

third,

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whilst in

Canada

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it reached one-fifth of total

costs

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, but it represented only 10% in Japan, and the proportions in the remaining countries ranged between 15% and 17%.

On the other hand

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, clothing was one of the lowest expenditures, which stood at 7% in

Canada

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and 6% in the UK; meanwhile, in Japan and the United States, figures were less than 5%. The healthcare

costs

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reached 7% as a minor share in the US, taking into account that in other countries, they did not exceed 4%.