The bar chart illustrates the proportion of households that owned numerous items from 2001 to 2008, expressed in percentage.
Overall, it is readily apparent that most categories experienced an upward trajectory, but by varying degrees, with the exception of telephone, whose numbers edged down slightly. Notably, telephone, microwave, and CD player were the most popular goods by the end of the period, contrasting sharply with dishwashers, which remained the least popular.
Looking first at the high ownership rates, namely microwave, and CD player, these household items saw a considerable increase while the reverse case was true for telephone. Specifically, commencing with the highest value recorded on the chart, telephone was owned by 95% of families, which was 15 percentage points higher than that of microwave. Interestingly, by 2008, the microwave’s percentage had risen by approximately 10% while the popularity of the telephone garnered a decline of 5%. Meanwhile, the ownership of CD players also followed the same pattern, with its figure increasing from 70% in 2001 to 90%, which matched microwaves’.
Turning next to the categories which recorded substantial growth, the Internet and dishwashers, despite starting with the lowest figure of 10% for both, had increased remarkably, with the proportions of households owning the Internet reaching 60% and those having dishwashers representing 40%.
Finally, moving to the remaining categories, the gap between mobile phone, home computer, and clothes dryer was less pronounced, at around 20%, 40% and 60% for them. This disparity, however, widened gradually when ownership levels climbed markedly to 80%, 80% and 70% respectively by 2008.