The chart below shows the movement of people from rural to urban areas in three countries and predictions for future years.
Sample Response
The line graph shows the number of people, in millions, migratingfigures in millions for the migration of people from the countryside to cities in three countriesthree different countries from 2000 to 2025over the period 2000 to 2025, including projectionsfuture predictions. Overall, it is clear that the shift from rural communities towards urban areasurban metropolitan areas increases overallis upwards.
All three countries began the period with similar numbers of urban migrants. Russia had the highest starting figurestarted with the most migrants (around 15 million) and rises significantly over the periodover the period sees significant increases, particularly between 2010 and 2015 (from around 42 million to 70 millionaround 42 to 70 million) and this upward trend is predicted to continuewith this upward trend predicted to continue (reaching approximately 86 million by 2025). Similarly, After a slow start between 2000 and 2005, Iran experiencesIran after a slow start between 2000 and 2005 sees a dramatic rise in urban migration, and after 2015 is predicted to see an even sharper increasean even more dramatic increase, surpassing Russia’s figurefigures in 2020 and reachingin 2020 reaching around 95 million by 2025. However, Indonesia bucks the trend somewhat. Whilst consistently steady between 2000 and 2020, its growth is far less dramatic than the other two countries (10 to 30 million). Furthermore, afterpost 2020, it is predicted to level off at around 30 million.
To sum up, while all three countries have seen growth up to 2015, only the figures for Russia and Iranthe figures for countries Russia and Iran are predicted to see continued growth up to 2025.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response identifies the overall rise and reports most key figures accurately, with effective comparison of the much stronger growth in Russia and Iran against Indonesia’s plateau. The main weakness is slight imprecision about when Iran overtakes Russia and in describing Indonesia as consistently steady; use exact crossover timing and distinguish steady growth from a stable level.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
A clear overview and well-chosen figures describe the main trajectories, but Iran only overtakes Russia after 2020 and Indonesia rises steadily rather than remaining steady.
State that the Russian and Iranian lines converge around 2020 before Iran moves ahead, and distinguish Indonesia’s gradual rise from its later plateau.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is sequenced logically by country and relationships are easy to follow, although the single dense body paragraph carries several distinct comparisons.
Split the detail into two purposeful paragraphs, separating the sharply rising countries from Indonesia’s slower growth and plateau.
Lexical Resource
The response uses varied trend vocabulary such as dramatic rise, surpassing and level off, with only occasional awkward combinations.
Replace redundant or imprecise phrases such as urban metropolitan areas and consistently steady with more exact trend language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of complex clauses is mostly controlled, though a few long sentences have loose attachment or punctuation.
Recast the long sentence about Iran so the crossing point and the 2025 figure are expressed in separate, clearly linked clauses.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the movement of people from rural to urban areas in three countries and predictions for future years.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.