The two pie charts compare the proportions of money spent on seven different items in the USA in 1966 and 1996. Overall, food accounted for the largest share in 1966, while cars became the biggest spending category in 1996. In addition, spending on food decreased, whereas expenditure on cars, restaurants and computers increased.
At the beginning of the period, food made up 44% of total spending in 1966, but this figure fell sharply to 14% in 1996. By contrast, the percentage of money spent on cars rose significantly from 23% to 45%, becoming the largest category. Spending on restaurants also increased, doubling from 7% to 14%.
Turning to the remaining categories, expenditure on petrol fell slightly from 9% to 8%, while furniture also decreased from 10% to 8%. In contrast, spending on computers increased considerably from only 1% in 1966 to 10% in 1996. Finally, the proportion of money spent on books remained unchanged at 6% in both years.
