IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Topic 20: Changes in spending habits of people in UK – Graph
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Contents
Write a report to a university lecturer describing the data.
Write at least 150 words.

Report Plan
Paraphrase: shows>demonstrate; spending habits>spending patterns
Overview: The graphs show changes in spending habits of people in UK between 1971 and 2001.
Paragraph 2: (1) Compare the expenses on different commodities. Give figures.
Paragraph 3: (1) Compare the expenses on different commodities. Give figures.
Sample Answer
The pie charts demonstrate changes in the spending patterns between 1971 and 2001 in the UK.
The overall trend shows an increased amount of money spent on cars, computers and eating out.
Talking about it in detail, food and car turned out to be the two biggest items of expenditure in both the given years. Together, they encompassed more than half of household spending in the UK. In 1971, food accounted for 44% of the expenditure. In 2001, it saw a drop by two thirds and reached up to 14%. Also, the spending on cars turned twice, increasing from 22% to 43%.
Significant change can be seen in other areas as well. Outlay on eating out doubled, climbing from 7% to 14%. A dramatic increase in the proportion of salary spent on computers can also be observed, up from 2% to 12%. However, with a striking upsurge in computer expenditure, the percentage of expenditure on books plunged from 6% to 1%.
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4 Comments
Carolina
Posted on Jan 26, 2022
The pie charts illustrate changes in spending patterns of the UK’s populations in two years, 1971 and 2001.
Overall, it can be observed that food was the most significant sector people spent money on in 1971, while cars accounted for most of their spending thirty years later. The most dramatic change can be seen on the food sector which has shown a fall of 30 per cent of people’s spending during this time frame.
Also worth noting is that cars spending increased by just over a fifth and people spending habits on computers also demonstrated a growth of approximately 10%. Restaurant spending comprised of 7% in the first year and this figure doubled in 2001.
In contrast, all the other categories showed a decreased in its proportions; apart from food which had a substantial fall, the other sectors, books, petrol and furniture, showed only a minimal change by 5%, 2% and 1% respectively from 1971 to 2001.
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Carol
Posted on Jan 25, 2022
The pie charts illustrate changes in spendings patterns of the UK’s populations in two years, 1971 and 2001.
Overall, it can be observed that food was the most significant sector people spent money on in 1971, while cars accounted for most of their spendings thirty years later. The most dramatic change can be seen on the food sector which has shown a fall of 30 per cent of people’s spendings during this time frame.
Also worth noting is that cars spendings increased by just over a fifth and people spending habits on computers also demonstrated a growth of approximately 10%. Restaurant spendings comprised of 7% in the first year and this figure doubled in 2001.
In contrast, all the other categories showed a decreased in its proportions, apart from food which had a substantial fall, the other sectors, books, petrol and furtniture, showed only a minimal change by 5%, 2% and 1% respectively.
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Janice Thompson
Posted on Jan 27, 2022
Band score: 5
Concentrate on prepositions, articles, pronouns.
Kishan
Posted on Dec 23, 2016
Hi
Could you please send me the all the IELTS (academic) material related to January 2017 test regarding writing material for task 1 and task 2 both place sent me…
My email:- patelkishan26194@gmail.com
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