The pie charts show how Americans’ spending habits changed among various groups in 1966 and 1996.
Overall, spending money on food decreased in 3 decades, and spending on cars almost doubled. Interestingly, the smallest indicator increased: computers; instead, spending on books declined to the smallest percentage.
Looking first at dominant trends in both charts: food, cars, and furniture. As mentioned above, food decreased to one-third its previous amount; food has decreased almost threefold in 30 years. In contrast, spending on cars doubled from 23% to 45% in 30 years. There was also a decrease in spending on furniture, but by a very small percentage, i.e., 2%.
The remaining patterns are petrol, restaurants, computers, and books. Spending on petrol also fell by a very small percentage, just like spending on furniture. In 1966, spending at restaurants was only 7 percent, and 30 years later it doubled to 14 percent. Spending on books was 5% less in the first year than in the second year. The percentage of people who bought computers grew from 1% to 10%