The home

How the home has changed: who lived in it, what work was done in it, what it cost — and how each political and economic system, from the tribe to the mortgage market, reached through the front door.

“Allah has made your homes a place of rest for you” (an-Nahl 16:80). Spending shares and prices are rounded and come mostly from British and American records, the longest series kept.

9 turning points — press + to read one

  1. Shelter and the first houses

  2. The home in Islam

  3. Feudal and cottage homes

  4. Industry splits home and work

  5. Empire and the divided family

  6. The modern household

  7. Now

The household in numbers

Income, then expenses, then the link between them — the American family across 120 years beside the average household of every continent.

Income per person, 1900–2022

The United States against the average person on every continent. A logarithmic scale: each step up the axis is the same proportional rise, so slow and fast growth can be compared fairly.

$1k$2k$5k$10k$20k$50k190019251950197520002022continents from 1950$58,487 United States$49,789 Oceania$33,787 Europe$18,482 Rest of N. America$14,390 Asia$14,146 South America$4,882 Africa
Table
YearUnited StatesEuropeOceaniaRest of North AmericaSouth AmericaAsiaAfrica
1900$8,038——————
1925$11,150——————
1950$15,240$5,848$12,130$4,805$3,986$1,161$1,424
1960$18,057$8,677$14,215$6,063$5,021$1,628$1,678
1970$23,958$12,923$18,922$8,218$6,467$2,482$2,119
1980$29,611$16,039$22,392$10,999$8,929$3,400$2,459
1990$36,982$18,379$26,453$11,362$8,166$4,470$2,345
2000$45,886$22,051$34,962$14,142$10,124$5,836$2,850
2010$49,267$29,060$43,133$16,426$13,930$9,214$4,579
2022$58,487$33,787$49,789$18,482$14,146$14,390$4,882

GDP per person in 2011 dollars, adjusted for prices — a measure of average income, not of any one family. Continents are population-weighted from their countries; “Rest of North America” is Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023, via Our World in Data.

Where an American family’s money goes, 1901–2024

Each bar is one national survey: the whole of a family’s spending, split by what it went on. Food falls from 43% to 13%; housing and transport grow.

  • Food
  • Housing
  • Clothing
  • Transport
  • Healthcare
  • Everything else

  1. 1901income $750 · spent $769 — more than it earned

    43%23%14%15%

  2. 1918-19income $1,518 · spent $1,434

    38%23%17%22%

  3. 1934-36income $1,524 · spent $1,512

    34%32%11%8%12%

  4. 1950income $4,237 · spent $3,808

    30%27%12%13%13%

  5. 1960-61income $6,691 · spent $5,390

    24%30%10%15%7%15%

  6. 1972-73income $11,419 · spent $8,348

    19%31%8%19%6%16%

  7. 1984-85income $23,464 · spent $21,975

    15%30%6%20%24%

  8. 1996-97income $38,983 · spent $34,312

    14%32%19%5%25%

  9. 2002-03income $50,302 · spent $40,748

    13%33%19%6%25%

  10. 2024income $104,207 · spent $78,535

    13%33%17%8%26%
Table
SurveyIncomeSpentFoodHousingClothingTransportHealthcareEverything else
1901$750$76942.5%23.3%14%in other5.2%15%
1918-19$1,518$1,43438.2%23.3%16.6%in otherin other21.9%
1934-36$1,524$1,51233.6%32%10.6%8.3%3.9%11.6%
1950$4,237$3,80829.7%27.2%11.5%13.4%5.2%13%
1960-61$6,691$5,39024.3%29.5%10.4%14.7%6.6%14.5%
1972-73$11,419$8,34819.3%30.8%7.8%19.3%6.4%16.4%
1984-85$23,464$21,97515%30.4%6%19.6%4.8%24.2%
1996-97$38,983$34,31213.8%32.1%5.1%18.7%5.3%25%
2002-03$50,302$40,74813.1%32.8%4.2%19.1%5.9%24.9%
2024$104,207$78,53512.9%33.4%2.5%17%7.9%26.3%

Average family (consumer unit), dollars of each year. 1918-19 does not separate transport or healthcare, so they sit in “everything else”; 1901 healthcare includes insurance. Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending” (2006) and Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024.

Food’s share of spending: America’s past is the world’s present

The poorer a household, the more of its money goes on food (Engel’s law). The average African household today spends a share on food close to an American family’s in 1901; Asia’s is where America stood around 1950.

  • United States, by survey year
  • A continent today (bar colour as in the income chart)
  1. United States, 190142.5%
  2. Africa, today41.4%
  3. United States, 1918-1938.2%
  4. United States, 1934-3633.6%
  5. United States, 195029.7%
  6. Asia, today28.4%
  7. United States, 1960-6124.3%
  8. Rest of North America, today23.8%
  9. South America, today21.8%
  10. United States, 1972-7319.3%
  11. Europe, today17.7%
  12. United States, 1984-8515%
  13. United States, 1996-9713.8%
  14. United States, 2002-0313.1%
  15. United States, 202412.9%
  16. Oceania, today10.4%
  17. United States, today6.8%

US rows: all food, as a share of all family spending (BLS; little was eaten out before the 1950s). Continent rows, and “United States, today” among them for a like-for-like comparison: food bought to eat at home, 2023, population-weighted across the countries reported (USDA Economic Research Service, via Our World in Data). Including meals out, a US family in 2024 spent 12.9%.

Histories — Justice Council