The pie charts provide a breakdown of the percentage of average household expenses across different spending areas over a fifty-year period from 1960 to 2010. Overall, it can be clearly seen that there was an upward trend for housing, transport, education and health care whereas a reverse pattern can be observed for other necessities.
As can be seen from the pie chart, food made up the highest proportion of the total spending, at slightly more than a third (34%), which indicates that it was the most important need for families at the time. The next two major expense categories were housing and other basic necessities accounting for 22% and 19% respectively, compared with 14% for transport. In contrast, the figures for the rest including entertainment, education, and health care constituted an insignificant minority, at nearly the same percentage, ranging from 3% to 4%.
A closer look at the second pie chart reveals that in 2010, although food continued to be the major category, its proportion slightly decreased to 30%. Meanwhile, housing and health care rose minimally by 3% and 2% respectively, while transport witnessed marked growth from 14% to 20%. In comparison with, the percentage of education in 2010 increased twofold, compared with only 8% in 2010. Subsequently, only minor variation was seen in entertainment, with a moderate fall to 2%. Finally, other basic necessities slumped from 19% to 9%.