Band 8+: The bar chart below shows how households in a European country spent their weekly income in 1990 and and in 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart shows how households in a European country allocated their weekly income across seven categories in 1990 and 2020.

Overall, grocery spending was the biggest in 1990, whereas rent and housing were the highest expenditure in 2020. Meanwhile, personal care had the lowest share throughout the period.

Households spent more on both utilities and transportation over the 30-year period. Utility costs rose from 7% to 10%, and transportation went up from 8% to 12%. Furthermore, the most notable gain was spending on rent and housing costs, increasing significantly by around 10% from 18% in 1990 to above 28% in 2020, making it the top spending category in 2020.

In contrast, spending on entertainment and personal care declined slightly in both years, from 10% to 8% and from 5% to 4%, respectively. Similarly, a more substantial drop was recorded in clothing, which fell from 12% to just 5%. Despite being the highest spending category in 1990, groceries decreased considerably from roughly 28% to 18% in the final year.