The pie charts below show the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010.
Household Expenditure in 1950 and 2010
The pie charts below show the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010.
Read an accessible description
Pie chart for an IELTS Academic Task 1 question about Household Expenditure in 1950 and 2010.
Write this question
Write, submit, improve.
The current question is preloaded. Your draft is saved locally while scoring integration is being prepared.
✓ High-fidelity exam simulation✓ IELTS scoring criteria✓ Detailed correction examples
IELTS band boosterWrite · Score · Improve
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words.
Words: 020:00 starts on first word
Marked essay library
Compare responses from Band 6.5.
Predicted band6.5The pie charts show the expenses made in housing, food, healthcare, education, transportation and other items in a country in 1950 and 2010. As is observed from the pie charts, in 1950 almost two-third expenditure was in housing whereas this average expenditure has been increased for food, transportation etc. in 2010. According to the given data, more than 70% expenditure of the people in this country went on in housing in 1950. The second most expenditure in this country was for food. All other expenditures including healthcare, education, transportation etc. were less than 20% in total. After 60 years the trends of expenditure in this country significantly changed. People’s expenditure in housing decreased to only 22% while the expenditure for food increased to just over one-third of the total. Interestingly, the expenditure on education decreased over the time while the expenses for transportation increased to 14%. All other expenditure in 1950 was only 4.4% which increased to roughly 20% in 2010 which indicates the new addition in the category where people started expensing more than they did in 1950. In summary, the expenditure nature of people had changed significantly in 2010 than that had been in 1950 and it is obvious that expenses on food upsurged.Predicted band6.5The two pie charts compare the household outlay in a country by major categories in 1950 and 2010. Overall, in both years, significant expenditure went on for accommodation and food which together covered the most of the expenditure. However, in 2010, spending ratio escalated for the food while decreased for the housing. In 1950, nearly two-thirds of the expenditure of people went on for the accommodation and more than 11% on food. The expenditure on housing plummeted in 2010, 72.1% to 22.0% while it almost trebled in the case of the food. Healthcare expenditure ratio, on the contrary, was the lowest, only 2.4%, and it increased by almost 2% in 2010. Similarly, the outlay on transportation was elevated in 2010 by nearly 10%. The cost ratio for education was 6.6% in 1950 which slightly decreased after six decades. Other categories attributed to only around 4% expenditure and it roughly quintuple during the period. In summary, the housing drained the highest percentages of money for the people in this country in 1950 and after 60 years it reduced while the ratio of expense on foods increased remarkably.Predicted band6.5The two pie charts compare the average nationwide expenses on several household categories including housing, food, healthcare, education, transportation in 1950 and 2010. The expenditure ratio for food soared in 6 decades while an overwhelming portion of the expenditure went on for housing in 1950. Now turning to the details, the bulk of the expenses in 1950 was made for the housing and food which accounted for a massive 72.1% and 11.2% of the total expenditures. In opposite, it can be observed that people prioritised buying food (34%) more than housing (22%) six decades later. Health care had the lowest amount of money spent on in both of the years. In addition, transportation expenses had remarkably increased by roughly three times from only 3.3% in 1950 to 14% in 2010. Aside from that, spending on other items also rose to 19.3% from 4.4% in 1950. Education expense ratio, however, had slightly decreased where people insignificantly spent 0.3% more in 1960 than in 2010. To summarise, basic necessities such as food and housing are the two main categories people spent most percentages of money on, however, health care aspect was the least prioritised.
Task achievement7.0
Coherence & cohesion6.5
Lexical resource5.5
Grammar6.0
Task achievement7.0
Coherence & cohesion6.5
Lexical resource6.0
Grammar6.0
Task achievement6.5
Coherence & cohesion6.5
Lexical resource6.0
Grammar6.0
Related questions
More practice with a related structure or topic.
Pie chart
UAE Government Spending in 2000
The pie chart gives information on UAE government spending in 2000. The total budget was AED 315 billion.
3 marked essaysBand 6.0–6.5Pie chartWomen's Education in Someland
The pie charts below show information on the highest level of education of women in Someland in 1945 and 1995.
3 marked essaysBand 6.5–7.0