How Does The World Spend Their Money? // The Science of being Rationally Irrational // Blog Network // University of Notre Dame

This chart from The Economist, shows how countries all over the world spend their money

The chart summarizes percentages of spending into distinct categories like Healthcare, Food, Transportation, etc.

What immediately stands out is the large proportion of healthcare spending by the United States. Not only do households spend roughly 30% of income on healthcare, there is a staggering difference between countries. Only Australia and South Korea spend above average amounts with the remaining countries spending below average amounts.

Other observations include South Korea spending the most in Education at 6.7%

Russia spending the most on Alcohol & Tobacco at 8.3%

What this chart doesn’t account for well, is the purchasing power of average income of households in different countries. With lower incomes, wouldn’t we expect to see Mexicans spending a majority of their income on Housing, Transportation and Food?