Band 9: The pie chart below shows the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

The two pie charts compare the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010.

Overall, it is clear that spending on housing decreased significantly over the period, while the proportion of money spent on food, health care, and other categories increased. This suggests that household expenses became more diversified by 2010.

In 1950, housing accounted for the largest proportion of household expenditure at 72.1%, followed by food at 11.2%. The remaining categories – education (6.6%), transportation (3.3%), and health care (2.4%) – made up much smaller portions.

By 2010, the share of spending on housing dropped dramatically to 22%, while food became the biggest expense at 34%. Other expenditures also rose sharply from 4.4% to 19.2%. Meanwhile, spending on health care and transportation slightly increased to 4.5% and 14% respectively. Education, however, experienced a slight decline from 6.6% to 6.3%.

In summary, while housing dominated household budgets in 1950, by 2010, families spent more evenly across different categories, with food taking the largest share.