IELTS Writing Task 1 Guide
For IELTS Task 1 there are sometimes two or three pie charts that you must compare. The pie charts may represent different years and show trends over time. You need to describe the changes and similarities/differences between the pie charts.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The pie charts below show the average household expenditures in Japan and Malaysia in the year 2010.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Model answer
The pie charts show the proportion of money spent on various household expenses in Malaysia and Japan in 2010.
We can see that in Malaysia the greatest proportion of expenditure (34%) was on housing, while in Japan housing accounted for just 21% of the total. In contrast, in Japan the greatest single expense was other goods and services at 29%, compared with 26% in Malaysia. Food came in second place in Japan, at 24%, while in Malaysia the actual proportion was higher (27%). In Japan another major expense was transport, at 20%, but this was much lower In Malaysia (10%). In both countries the smallest percentage of expenditure was on health care.
Overall, the data indicates that in both cases food, housing and other goods and services were the main expenses, but that in Japan, transport and other goods and services took up a higher proportion of total expenditure than in Malaysia.
(152 Words)
