The given pie charts illustrate the composition of money spent on eating at restaurants and cooking at home, while the line graph compares the popularity of fast food and sitdown restaurant meals (meals/per year) from 1970 to 2000 at intervals of ten years.
Overall, the data reveals the increasing expenditure on restaurant meals, which was offset by that on home-cooked meals. What is also striking is the increases in the popularity of fast food meals and sit-down restaurant meals, with the former surpassing the latter from the late 80s onwards.
Looking first at the food budget, an average family spent only 10% on restaurant meals, which was counter-balanced by 90% on meals cooked at home. However, spending on restaurant meals continued to expand by every 10-year interval, and by 2000, it had constituted half of the total, equalizing that of home cooking.
Turning to the meal consumption at fast food and sit-down restaurants, both initially registered 20 meals eaten per year. Afterwards, rises were recorded in both types of restaurants, with sit-down restaurants witnessing a sharper rise to around 32 meals per year in 1980, compared to fast food ones lagging behind with 29 meals. As of the mid-80s, the figures for the two types of restaurants had converged at roughly 40 meals per year, after which fast food restaurants began to soar and surpass sit-down ones. By 2000, the gap between fast food restaurants and sit-down restaurants had further widened, with the former reaching their peak at 90 meals, almost doubling those of the latter.