The charts illustrate the percentage of people’s spending on separate goods and services in Europe between the years 1958 and 2008. Overall, it is evident that the proportion of housing and luxury goods, along with travel experienced an upward trend, while there was a decline in that of those necessities such as food, clothes and entertainment.
As can be clearly seen from the chart, in 1958, food expenses topped the list with nearly one-third in total at 32%, next came housing and clothing with the figures being 22% and 18% respectively, compared to 13% of entertainment. Meanwhile, the amount of money spent on travel/transport and luxury goods accounted for the lowest rate, with only 8% and 7% respectively.
Five decades afterwards, there was a sharp fall by 20% in the budget European diverted to food, being the second lowest among all services. Likewise, spending on entertainment halved from 13% to 6% whereas that of clothing slightly declined by 2%
By contrast, housing expenditure represented a significant growth of 10%, which was the highest category. Similarly, the percentage of travel/transportation and luxury goods continued to rise notably (from 8% and 7% to both reaching 17%) by the end of the period. Meanwhile, residents allocated budget to entertainment surprisingly decreased by 7% over a fifty-year decade.