Because the US Department of Statistics and the UK department of statistics have overlap between what they count in housing for example and miscellaneous. It is quite hard to get a real feel for a meaningful comparison between the two countries average expenditures in the different areas. Accordingly, I have put up two sets for the US. My own incredibly rough guestimates reading between the lines of the US report, as to what the equivalent to the UK figures might be, and what they classify under the different categories in the report. These reports cumulatively run to over 400 pages; and so my little precis amounts to "lies, damn lie or statistics" depending on your perspective. It is also important to note that this is an 'average' household. The richer the household the more they spend on areas like recreation. Also, because of the overlap between the areas - buying a new dress for example might not be classified as 'recreation' for the ladies amongst you. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun! I also doubt that the UK spends 15% on recreation and the US only 5% (even though that is what the figures indicate). But surmise that perhaps bits and pieces of the other areas that are counted as 'recreation' by UK statisticians are not by US ones. Still, it is nevertheless at least some kind of starting point (albeit a very in-exact one) for an idea of what we spend our cash on.