Who's Buying What?

That's the question that Good Magazine asks. Their answer is this map graphic.



It measures 20 countries that seem to have been chosen more or less arbitrarily by per capita expenditure in 5 categories: clothing, household goods, alcohol and tobacco, recreation, and electronics.

It's unclear why these particular countries were chosen - maybe they just had the best data? Who knows. At any rate, Scandinavia is way overrepresented, as are the Anglophone countries. Africa - not for the first time in history - gets the short end of the stick.

The biggest consumers in each category are:
Clothing - Norway
Household Goods - Norway
Alcohol and Tobacco - Norway
Recreation - Norway
Electronics - Norway

A clean sweep! And the least consumptive, so to say?
Clothing - India
Household Goods - Pakistan
Alcohol and Tobacco - India
Recreation - Pakistan ($1!)
Electronics - Pakistan

A clean sweep for South Asia, at any rate. Though this seems like the sort of competition where you wouldn't want to come in either first or last.

The graphic also indicates the top item of these five categories in every surveyed country. In all ten industrialized countries, it's recreation. Of the ten developing countries, clothing is the top item in 7, household goods in 2, and alcohol and tobacco in 1. (Go, Brazil! At least one nation has its priorities in order.)