IELTS writing task 1: Table about consumer spending

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

Percentage of national consumer expenditure by category - 2002

The given table compares the percentage of national expenditure spent by consumers in five countries, namely: Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey on three different categories in 2002.

It is clear that food, drinks, and tobacco were rated as the most necessary items among all five nations, while leisure and education constituted the least amount of their spending.

As can be seen from the table, Turkey spent the highest proportion of money at nearly a third on food, drinks, and tobacco categories, followed by Ireland with the percentage being slightly smaller, at around 29. Spending by customers in Sweden was close to half of that of Turkey, standing at about 15.7 percent. The figure for Spain and Italy was 18.8 and 16.36 percent respectively. Also, the expenditure of five countries allocating to clothing and footwear was significantly below the average of the top items with the largest number (only 5.4 percent) belonging to Italy. By contrast, the lowest figure was once again recorded in Sweden, at just about 5.4 percent.

As regards leisure and education activities, the spending percentage was much less than the other two categories. Turkey’s spend continued to take the first place in these items and doubled that of Spain, 4.35 compared to 1.98 percent. Finally, there was almost no difference in the figures for investment amount in leisure and education between Ireland, Italy, and Sweden.