IELTS Advanced · Giữa khoá · Writing: Household Spending Patterns

The table compares how households in one country divided their spending among seven categories in 1995, 2010 and 2025.

Overall, housing absorbed an ever larger share of household budgets and remained by far the biggest expense, while digital services grew from almost nothing into a significant item. By contrast, the proportions spent on food, clothing and miscellaneous goods declined steadily.

Housing and utilities accounted for roughly a quarter of spending (24%) in 1995, rising to 29% in 2010 and more than a third (34%) by 2025. The most dramatic relative growth, however, was in digital services and subscriptions, which climbed from a mere 1% to 4% and then 9%, overtaking clothing by the end of the period. Transport and recreation remained comparatively stable, each fluctuating within a narrow band of 11–15%.

Meanwhile, the share devoted to food and non-alcoholic drinks fell from 19% to 13%, and clothing and footwear almost halved, dropping from 9% to just 5%. Spending on other goods and services also decreased considerably, from 22% to 15%, which suggests that rising housing and digital costs squeezed other areas of household expenditure.