The bar chart compares how families in one country allocated their weekly income in 1968 and 2018 across seven spending categories.
Overall, spending patterns shifted significantly over the 50 years, with food, clothing, and personal goods seeing major reductions, while expenditures on leisure, housing, and transport rose. Household goods remained constant.
In 1968, food accounted for the largest share of weekly income at 35%, but this fell dramatically to 17% in 2018. Spending on clothing and footwear also dropped by half, from 10% to 5%. Similarly, personal goods expenditure decreased from 8% to 4%.
Conversely, leisure spending surged from 9% in 1968 to 22% in 2018, marking the most significant increase. Housing expenses rose from 10% to 19%, and transport costs increased by 6%, from 8% to 14%. Expenditure on fuel and power experienced a modest decline, from 6% to 4%.
Interestingly, spending on household goods remained unchanged at 8% over the period.