Saturday, May 24, 2008

you can hide in the cinema, you've got the money to spend

This chart is neat for several reasons:

  • The circle itself represents 100% of the average consumer’s spending. The circle is divided into eight large shapes, each of which is divided further into a number of smaller shapes. The size of each shape represents an estimate of what the average American spends on the category it represents. For example, gasoline is the largest shape in the transportation category.
  • Each shape is color-coded by the change in prices for that category between March 2007 and March 2008. The three dark red shapes (representing price increases of more than 40%) are all petroleum products. But eggs — with a 29.9% price increase — are close behind.
  • Hovering over any shape will reveal the category name, the share of spending from the average budget, and the amount by which prices have changed in the past year.
  • You can use the “zoom in” tool to get a better view of the action, and then drag the chart around to look at different categories. It’s only by doing this that you can see lettuce has its own category, and that the green, leafy stuff has declined in price by 3.2% over the past twelve months.
A Glimpse at the Spending of the Average American

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