vitrine · corridor · pairwise
1900s ↔ 2020s
Fact families the measure guard certifies comparable for this pair. Everything else renders as the gap it is. Every value links to its record.
A new car — affordability
⚠ Share-of-income mixes income concepts across decades (family income (period cost-of-living survey), total money income); a step between points may reflect the concept change, not affordability.
⚠ Price and anchor years differ by more than 3 years in: 1900s, 2020s — the hours axis is not strictly inflation-free there.
1900s · Tier C
$650 (Oldsmobile Curved Dash, best-selling) to $750 (Ford Model A) ≈ 2,600 hours of work
2020s · Tier A
$27,366 ≈ 909 hours of work
Budget composition
Inspect the folded categories
1900s
housing:
rent 12.95%
apparel:
clothing 14.04%
food:
food 42.54%
other:
fuel & light 5.25% + furniture 3.42% + tobacco 1.42% + liquor/sickness/amusements 14.51% + misc 5.87%
2020s
housing:
housing 31.3%
apparel:
apparel 2.5%
food:
food 13.5%
health:
healthcare 7.0%
transport:
transportation 17.9%
other:
insurance/pensions 14.8% + entertainment 4.6% + education 2.4% + cash contributions 2.0%
Life expectancy at birth
years (all races, both sexes)
⚠ Decades before the 1960s published white-only male/female life tables with no all-races total — the placard carries the sexed figures and the chart renders the gap rather than a spliced concept.
1900s · Tier A
48.2 years (white male), 51.1 years (white female) — see the placard
2020s · Tier A
76.5 male, 81.4 female (79.0 total)
Infant mortality
deaths under age 1 per 1,000 live births
1900s · Tier A
~100 per 1,000 live births
2020s · Tier A
5.525 per 1,000 live births (552.5 per 100,000)
Homeownership
% of occupied housing units owner-occupied
Average family size
persons per family
⚠ The 1900s datum (5.31) is from the 1901 BLS wage-earner survey — 0.7 persons above the Census 1900 national average of 4.61; the survey over-sampled larger families, not by design.
⚠ The 1940s point is 1947 (first postwar CPS tabulation), not 1940. The 1960s uptick (3.7 vs 3.54 in 1950) reflects the baby boom's peak family-composition effect.
Household landline telephone
% of households
⚠ The 1900s source combines several technologies in one headline percentage, so its 5% is not plotted as a telephone datum.
⚠ 1910s–1930s sources counted telephones per 1,000 population, not households — those decades render as gaps rather than a unit splice.
1900s · Tier A
Telephone: 9.2 per 1,000 population (1898), ~5% of households. Automobile: <1% (registration incomplete pre-1910). Electricity: <5% of homes (urban only). Radio: not yet commercial.
2020s · Tier A
Cell phone 92.7%, landline 20.1%, garage/carport 67.6%
Women's unpaid home production
hours per week, prime-age women
⚠ From 2010s onward the source is ATUS (all adults 15+, hrs/day, narrower 'household activities'), not Ramey (prime-age women 18-64, hrs/week, broader 'home production') — a concept splice. ATUS facts remain available in their rooms, but render as linked gaps on this weekly axis rather than as a false decline.
1900s · Tier C
46.8
2020s · Tier C
Ramey 2005: women 29.3, men 16.8 hrs/week (ages 18–64) → ATUS 2024: household activities 2.01 hrs/day, all adults 15+ — see the placard
Men's unpaid home production
hours per week, prime-age men
⚠ From 2010s onward the source is ATUS (all adults 15+, hrs/day, narrower 'household activities'), not Ramey (prime-age men 18-64, hrs/week, broader 'home production') — a concept splice. ATUS facts remain available in their rooms, but render as linked gaps on this weekly axis rather than as a false rise or decline.
1900s · Tier C
3.9
2020s · Tier C
Ramey 2005: women 29.3, men 16.8 hrs/week (ages 18–64) → ATUS 2024: household activities 2.01 hrs/day, all adults 15+ — see the placard
Food's share of spending
% of household expenditure
⚠ Populations differ across the century — 1901 wage-earner families vs modern consumer units; every placard names who was measured.
⚠ The 1950s point is the nearest available survey (CEX 1960–61), stated plainly rather than back-cast.
1900s · Tier A
42.54%
2020s · Tier A
Food 13.5% of expenditure for 4-person families (~$14,800 of $109,622/yr). Down from 42.54% in 1901.
Weekly hours, manufacturing
hours per week, production workers