The charts below show the growth in the population in some of the world’s largest cities as well as the population distribution in urban and rural areas.
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Sample Response
The bar graph compares the population growth in five large cities between 1970 and 2010 while the table listslists down the five most populous cities in the world in both 1950 and 2010both in 1950 and 2010. In addition, the line graph showsanalyses the global population in rural and urban areas.
Overall, Tokyo had the highestlargest population in 2010 but the populations of Bombay and Jakarta grew more than those of the other citiesthe population growth in Bombay and Jakarta outranked other cities. More peopleFinally, more people started to live in cities between 2000 and 2010after 2005 whereas the rural population had been higher previouslydespite a different scenario in earlier years.
As the data suggests, Tokyo had over 15 million residents in 1970 which was three and five times higher than that of Bombay and Jakarta respectively. New York and Shanghai had approximately 14 and 12 million inhabitants that yearin this year. After two decades, New York witnessed a meagre population growth while growth was dramatic in both Jakarta and Bombayit was dramatic both in Jakarta and Bombay. It is evident that population growth in Jakarta and Bombay exceeded all other cities.
In 1950, New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and MoscowMoskow were the five most populous citiestop five populous cities in the world. In 2010 Bombay, Lagos, Shanghai and Jakarta ranked in the list by eliminating all other cites except Tokyo which stood first on the chart with over 27 million citizens.
Finally, the global urban population in 1980 was below 2 billion while 3 billion people lived in rural areas3 billion lived in villages. The population in cities grew steadily and rose to just over 4 billionwent over 4 billion in 2010, at which pointin 2010 at which point about 3 billion people3 billion global population resided in rural areas.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response organizes the three visuals clearly and selects several important comparisons, with a recognizable overview and generally accurate figures. Its main limitation is incomplete and occasionally imprecise coverage, especially the omission of the 1990 series from the introduction, limited numerical support for the city rankings, and awkward wording of the urban-rural crossover. Prioritize a more precise overview and a balanced set of exact comparisons across every visual.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response presents a clear overview and several accurate comparisons, but it omits the 1990 timeframe in the introduction, gives sparse data for the rankings, and describes the urban-rural crossover imprecisely.
State that urban population overtook rural population between 2000 and 2010, and support each visual with a balanced selection of exact figures.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report progresses logically from the overview to the bar chart, rankings, and population distribution, with clear paragraph boundaries despite some mechanical repetition of 'Finally'.
Use more varied referencing and transitions, and make time links such as 'after two decades' explicitly identify the years being compared.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and often specific, but several collocations and choices are awkward or inaccurate, including 'lists down', 'growth ... outranked', and 'ranked ... by eliminating'.
Prefer precise reporting phrases such as 'lists', 'recorded the fastest growth', and 'replaced the earlier cities in the top five'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of complex sentence forms is generally controlled, though errors in agreement, punctuation, and noun phrasing recur in places.
Check clause subjects and noun groups, revising phrases such as 'while it was dramatic both' and '3 billion global population' into complete, natural structures.