The pie charts illustrate how a typical family allocated its monthly household budget across six spending categories in 1990 and 2020.
Overall, food was the largest area of expenditure in 1990, but by 2020 housing had overtaken it to become the dominant category. Savings remained the smallest proportion of spending throughout the period.
In 1990, food accounted for 30% of the budget, slightly ahead of housing at 26%. Other spending stood at 14%, while transport made up 12%, only marginally more than savings at 10%. Leisure represented the smallest share at 8%.
By 2020, this pattern had shifted considerably. Housing rose to 35%, overtaking food, which fell to 20%. Transport and leisure each increased to 15%, having grown steadily over the three decades. Savings and other spending, meanwhile, dropped to 5% and 10% respectively, with other spending falling by 4 percentage points.
