“The statistics illustrate how people in a European country spent their money on five different items over a 40-year period, starting from 1960.
Overall, there was a downward trend in the percentage of spending on all categories, while the figure for transport took the opposite direction. Initially, food held the largest share of the total expenditure, but by the end of the period, transport surpassed it to become the leading sector. What was also notable from the chart is that people tended to spend the least money on energy during the entire period.
At the start of the period, food spending took the lead with about 33% of the total expenditure. This was followed by leisure expenditures, at 20%, which was double the figures for clothing and transport, as well as quadruple that for energy.
Thereafter, the proportion of spending on transport witnessed a considerable increase to 15% in 2000, overtaking food as the most common expense. By contrast, food spending experienced a dramatic decrease to under 15%. The remaining categories followed a similar trend but more gently, with their respective figures for leisure, clothing, and energy being roughly 12%, 5%, and 2% in 2000.”