Pick out the main features of this pie 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 pie charts below show how an average family in one country spent its income in 1970 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 1970 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Food | 35% | 15% |
| Housing | 20% | 34% |
| Transport | 12% | 17% |
| Leisure | 8% | 16% |
| Other | 25% | 18% |
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 pie charts compare how an average family in one country divided its income between five categories in 1970 and 2020.
Overall, food went from being the biggest item of expenditure to a much smaller one, while housing took its place. Spending on leisure and transport also became more important over the period.
In 1970 food accounted for the largest share of family spending, at 35%, and this fell to just 15% in 2020, less than half of the original figure. Housing moved in the opposite direction, rising from 20% to 34%, which made it the largest category in the later year and the only one to rise by more than 10 percentage points.
The two categories associated with a more comfortable lifestyle both grew. Leisure spending doubled, from 8% to 16%, and transport rose from 12% to 17%. By 2020 these two categories together took 33% of family income, compared with 20% in 1970.
The remaining category, other expenses, declined from 25% to 18%, but remained a significant part of the budget in both years.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| household expenditure | money a family spends |
| account for | make up |
| the largest proportion | the biggest share |
| double | become twice as large |
| decline from X to Y | fall between figures |
| a significant shift | a large change |
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