From the 1950s to the 2000s, the amount of money a family spent on food roughly increased by a factor of five, from $1,130 to $5,347 annually. During this same time frame, average family income has increased more than tenfold, from $4,237 to $50,302.
These are among the neat stats presented in “Grocery Spending Habits,” BillShrink’s new infographic looking at income, supermarket spending, and other household expenditures over the past six decades.
While other household expenses have increased at roughly the same pace as income, the proportion spent on food has decreased steady. In the 1950s, food accounted for nearly 30% of a household’s expenses. But now, in the 2000s, only 13% of the household budget is eaten up by food.