Pick out the main features of this bar chart for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below shows the percentage of people who owned their home in four age groups in 1990 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 1990 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| 25–34 | 46% | 28% |
| 35–44 | 68% | 48% |
| 45–54 | 76% | 66% |
| 55–64 | 80% | 74% |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
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Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The bar chart compares the percentage of people who owned their home in four age groups in 1990 and 2020.
Overall, home ownership fell in every age group over the thirty years. The decline was most severe among younger people, while ownership rose with age in both years.
In 1990 the youngest group, aged 25–34, had an ownership rate of 46%, and this increased in each older group, reaching 68% for 35–44-year-olds, 76% for those aged 45–54 and 80% for the oldest group. By 2020 every rate was lower, but the same pattern remained, with figures of 28%, 48%, 66% and 74% for the four groups respectively.
The biggest falls occurred in the two youngest groups. Ownership among 25–34-year-olds dropped from 46% to 28%, a decrease of 18 percentage points, while the rate for people aged 35–44 fell by 20 points, from 68% to 48%. This was the largest decline of any group.
Older people were less affected. The 45–54 group saw a 10-point fall, from 76% to 66%, and the 55–64 group recorded the smallest drop, from 80% to 74%, a decline of just 6 points.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| home ownership | owning the place where one lives |
| age group | people in a range of ages |
| drop sharply | fall quickly |
| be less affected | show a smaller change |
| fall from X to Y | decrease between figures |
| the older generation | older people |
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