IELTS Writing Task 1 Pie Chart
Pie charts show proportions of a whole, and they usually come in pairs, so the report is about two things: which slices are largest, and how the proportions changed between the charts.
Use percentages and fractions (a third, nearly half) and comparison language. You don't need every slice in detail: group the small ones together.
The pie charts below show how a typical household in one country divided its monthly spending in 2000 and 2024. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
- Food
- Housing
- Transport
- Entertainment
- Other
Data invented for practice.
How to structure it
- 1
Introduction
What the charts show, and the two years.
- 2
Overview
The biggest change: housing replaced food as the largest expense. Other categories changed only slightly.
- 3
Body 1
Housing and food, the two categories that swapped places.
- 4
Body 2
Transport, entertainment and other, grouped together.
The pie charts compare the way a typical household in one country allocated its monthly budget across five categories in 2000 and 2024.
Overall, the most significant change was that housing replaced food as the largest area of spending. The proportions spent on the remaining categories shifted only marginally.
In 2000, food accounted for the biggest share of household expenditure, at 30%, followed by housing at a quarter. By 2024 these positions had reversed: housing costs had risen to more than a third of the budget (35%), while the proportion spent on food had dropped to 22%.
The other categories saw smaller changes. Spending on transport remained almost unchanged, at 15% and 14% respectively, and the share devoted to entertainment rose slightly, from 10% to 12%. Miscellaneous expenses, which made up a fifth of spending in 2000, fell to 17% in 2024. As a result, housing and food together still accounted for more than half of all household spending in both years, but the balance between them had shifted considerably.
Why it scores Band 8: Proportion language (accounted for, a quarter, more than a third), a clear overview of the key change, and the minor categories grouped efficiently. 170 words.
Band is our estimate against the public IELTS Writing band descriptors.
Language that does the work
- accounted for / made up
- To say what proportion a slice is.
- the largest / smallest share of
- For ranking slices.
- a quarter / a third / nearly half
- Fractions in place of some percentages.
- shifted marginally / remained almost unchanged
- For small differences.
- these positions had reversed
- When two categories swap places.
- devoted to / allocated to
- Formal verbs for spending.
Mistakes that cost marks
- Describing chart 1 fully, then chart 2 fully. Compare them category by category.
- "Food was 30 percent of the pie chart". Say what it was a share of: spending.
- Giving the same weight to every slice. Spend more words on the big changes.
Practise it: 5 Cambridge tests with a Task 1 like this
Each one opens the full Cambridge Writing test on Langujet, timed, with an AI band for each criterion. 10 free corrections a day.