The bar chart shows the proportion of households that owned a range of home appliances and home technologies in a country in 2001 and 2008. Overall, ownership increased for every item except telephones. It is also noteworthy that among the five household appliances, dishwashers and home computers experienced the most substantial growth, mirroring the sharp rise in mobile phone and internet use.
Regarding household appliances, microwaves, CD players and clothes dryers were already common in 2001, with ownership rates of 80%, 70% and 60%, respectively. Seven years later, each of these saw increases of around 10 percentage points, while CD players rose by 20 points. In contrast, home computers and dishwashers were far less common at the start of the period, at 40% and 10%, but their growth was significant: the former figure doubled, and the latter quadrupled.
The pattern for communication technologies was somewhat different. Landline ownership fell slightly from 95% to 90%, a modest 5% decrease. By contrast, mobile phone ownership quadrupled, rising from 20%, and internet access climbed to 60%, a sixfold increase.
