The bar chart compares the proportion of weekly incomes distributed on eight family expenses between 1968 and 2018.
Overall, there were upward trends in the amounts of money spent on housing, transport, and leisure, while the opposite was true for food, fuel and power, clothing and footwear, and personal goods. Another noteworthy feature is that the percentage of income allocated for household goods remained unchanged during the period shown.
In 1968, families spent over a third of their budget (35%) on food; this figure, however, declined noticeably to roughly 17% in 2018. Similarly, the percentages of income expended on clothing and footwear as well as personal goods halved from 10% to 5% and around 8% to 4%, respectively. Meanwhile, a minimal decrease of about 2% was seen in the amount of money spent on fuel and power between 1968 and 2018.
Regarding housing and transportation, these expenditures almost doubled during the given period (from 10% to approximately 19% and from over 8% to about 14%, respectively). Moreover, families allocated significantly more money to leisure in 2018 (at 22%) compared to a mere 9% in 1968. However, the amount of weekly income spent on household goods stayed stable at approximately 8% from 1968 to 2018.