Overall, Life is definitely getting better.
Households earning > $75,000:
1890: 1 %; 2000: 23 %
Hours of work needed to buy McDonalds cheeseburger:
1956: 1/2 hour; 2000: 3 minutes
Home ownership:
1900: 20 %; 2000: 70 %
Hours of work needed to buy each 100 square feet of housing:
1956: 16 hours; 2000: 14 hours
Rooms per person:
Europe: ~1; United States: 2.1
Dwellings with central heat:
1930: 15 %; 2002: 78 %
High school graduates:
1940: <50 %; 2000: >80 %
Food spending in restaurants:
1955: 25 %; 2000: 46 %
"White collar" employment:
1900: 21 % men, 20 % women; 2000: 58 % men, 52 % women
Workweek (men only):
1850: 66 hours; 1900: 53 hours; 2000: 42 hours
Women spending 4+ hours/day at housework:
1900: 90 %; 2000: 14 %
Weekly leisure time (men only):
1880: 11 hours; 2000: 40 hours
Waking hours spent working over lifetime:
1850: 50 %; 2000: 20 %
Life expectancy difference between upper and lower class Briton:
1870: 17 years; 2000: 2 years
HT to Carl Frank who took statistics from Gregg Easterbrook's The Progress Paradox who asks if life is getting better why are people feeling worse.
Posted by Jill Fallon at January 23, 2006 5:04 PM | Permalink