Tips - IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
- Study the data before you begin to write.
- Make sure you have identified the most important aspects of the data.
- Organise your writing around the important aspects of the data.
- Describe those aspects, referring to the data in detail to illustrate what you are saying.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below gives information about global population percentages and distribution of wealth by region.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Model answer
The chart compares population shares in various regions of the world with the distribution of wealth in these same regions. It can be seen that wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and high income Asia-Pacific countries which together account for almost 90% of global wealth.
Even though North America has only approximately 6% of the world’s population, it boasts nearly 34% of global wealth. A similar situation can be seen in Europe, which has 15% of the global population but 30% of global wealth, and high income Asia-Pacific countries with 5% of the world’s population but 24% of its wealth.
In contrast, the overall share of wealth owned by people in Africa, China, India, and other lower income countries in Asia is considerably less than their population share, sometimes by a factor of more than ten. This is most striking in India, where 16% of the world’s population own only 1% of the world’s wealth and in China, which has the highest percentage of global population (24%) but only 3% of the world’s wealth.
(176 words)