Who Buys What, Globally

It should come as no surprise that we in the US buy the most of all the categories. However, if you’re curious how other nations stack up, the New York Times has a flash interactive map showing how nations compare in purchasing of clothes, electronics, alcohol & tobacco, household goods, and recreation. The map is per capita, obviously. I thought it was interesting how the US stacked against the rest of the world on alcohol & tobacco. I’d love to see that broken down into those two groups to see if the anti-smoking campaigns are working. Also, it should be noted this map has a HEAVY western/industrialized/northern bent to it. That’s probably a function of the subject matter itself, so it’s not a huge surprise.