The three pie charts illustrate how a particular UK school allocated its annual budget across five categories in the years 1981, 1991, and 2001.
Overall, teachers’ salaries constituted the largest share of expenditure throughout the period, while insurance saw the most significant relative increase. Conversely, spending on resources and furniture/equipment witnessed a considerable decline.
In detail, teachers’ salaries accounted for the majority of spending in all three years, making up 40% of the total in 1981, peaking at 50% in 1991, and then decreasing slightly to 45% in 2001. Similarly, other workers’ salaries represented 28% of the budget in 1981. This figure fell by half to 15% in 1991 and experienced a further slight decrease to 13% by 2001.
The most dramatic change was seen in spending on insurance, which rose sharply from just 2% in 1981 to 8% in 1991 and then more than doubled to 18% in 2001, making it the second largest expense category by the end of the period. In stark contrast, expenditure on resources such as books experienced a steady downward trend, falling from 15% to 9% and then to just 5% over the twenty years. Likewise, spending on furniture and equipment fluctuated, starting at 15% in 1981, plunging to 5% in 1991, and rising modestly to 9% in 2001.
In summary, while salaries remained the primary cost, the school’s financial priorities shifted significantly over the two decades, with insurance claiming a much larger portion of the budget at the expense of resources and non-salary expenditures