IELTS Writing Task 1: Every Chart Type, With Sample Answers

The line graph compares the proportion of people using the internet in Bangladesh, India and Viet Nam between 2005 and 2023.

Overall, internet use rose sharply in all three countries. Viet Nam had the highest figures throughout, and although India and Bangladesh were close for the first ten years, India pulled clearly ahead after 2015.

In 2005 only a small minority were online: about 13% of people in Viet Nam, just over 2% in India and almost no one in Bangladesh. Ten years later, the Vietnamese figure had reached 45%, while those for India and Bangladesh were still low, at roughly 15% and 12% respectively.

The late 2010s brought the fastest growth in Bangladesh and Viet Nam. Between 2015 and 2020 the Bangladeshi figure almost tripled, to 36%, and the Vietnamese one rose to 70%. Both then grew more slowly, ending the period at 44.5% and 78%. India, by contrast, kept up a steady pace to the end, climbing from 43% in 2020 to 60% in 2023 and opening a clear gap over Bangladesh.

The bar chart shows what percentage of the population lived in towns and cities in six Asian countries in 2000 and 2023.

Overall, the urban share grew everywhere. The increases varied widely, however, and Indonesia remained the most urbanised of the six countries while Sri Lanka remained the least.

In 2000 Indonesia already had 42% of its population in urban areas, well ahead of Pakistan at 33%. India, Viet Nam and Bangladesh were grouped between 23% and 28%. Sri Lanka lagged far behind, at 15%.

By 2023 more than half of Indonesians lived in urban areas (58%), after an increase of 16 percentage points, the largest of the six. Viet Nam was not far behind. Its urban share rose from 24% to 38%, taking it almost level with Pakistan (39%) and past India (35%). Bangladesh’s figure climbed by about 9 points to 32%, whereas Pakistan and Sri Lanka changed less, by around 5 to 6 points each. Even so, only one Sri Lankan in five lived in a town or city in 2023.

The pie charts compare how employment in Viet Nam was divided between agriculture, industry and services in 2000 and 2023.

Overall, the make-up of the workforce changed dramatically. Agriculture went from providing most jobs to providing the fewest, while industry and services both expanded.

In 2000 almost two thirds of Vietnamese workers (64.2%) were employed in agriculture, more than in the other two sectors combined. Services accounted for less than a quarter of jobs, at 23.7%, and industry for only 12.1%, or roughly one worker in eight.

By 2023 the picture had been transformed. The agricultural share had fallen by 37 percentage points to 27%, less than half its earlier level, while industry grew faster than either of the other sectors, almost tripling its share to 33.5%, so that one worker in three was now employed in factories, construction and similar activities. Services expanded too, to 39.5%, and became the largest sector. Together, industry and services now employed almost three quarters of the workforce.

The table shows life expectancy at birth in five Asian countries in 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2023.

Overall, life expectancy rose in all five countries over the period. Bangladesh improved the most and Pakistan the least, and by 2023 Sri Lanka had the highest figure and Pakistan the lowest.

In 2000 the countries fell into two groups. People in Sri Lanka and Viet Nam could expect to live for just over 71 and almost 73 years respectively, compared with only around 62 years in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Bangladesh made the greatest progress, adding almost 13 years to reach 74.7 in 2023. This took it above India, at 72.0, and just past Viet Nam (74.6), where life expectancy had risen slowly and then dipped after 2020. Sri Lanka improved steadily, to 77.5 years. Pakistan, by contrast, gained fewer than six years over the whole period, so a baby born there in 2023 could expect to live about ten years less than one born in Sri Lanka.

The diagram shows the stages in the production of black tea, from the picking of the leaves to the packing of the finished product.

Overall, there are seven stages. Most of them change the condition of the leaf, first softening it and then drying it, before the tea is sorted and packed.

The process begins on the tea estate, where the top two leaves and the bud of each shoot are plucked by hand. The fresh leaves are then withered: they are spread out in troughs and air is blown through them until they lose moisture and become soft.

Next, the leaves are rolled by machine. This breaks their cell walls and releases the juices, which react with the air in the following stage, oxidation. As the leaves oxidise, they turn from green to a copper-brown colour. Hot air is then used to dry them, which stops the oxidation. Finally, the dried tea is sorted by leaf size through a series of sieves, and the graded tea is packed for sale.

The maps show the village of Millbrook in 2000 and in 2025.

Overall, the village expanded considerably. The farmland disappeared, partly under new housing and partly as a park, and the facilities south of the main road grew, while the woodland and the older houses were left unchanged.

In 2000 the area north of the main road was entirely rural, with woodland in the west and farmland stretching east as far as the river, which the road crossed by a bridge. The village itself lay south of the road: housing in the west, a small group of shops and, next to them, a primary school.

By 2025 a housing estate had been built on the eastern half of the former farmland, and a new road had been laid to serve it, joining the main road at a roundabout. The rest of the farmland had become a park. South of the main road, the shops had been replaced by a supermarket with a car park behind it, and the school had been extended southwards.