The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in the world and in different continents.
Sample Response
The column graph gives data on the percentages of people living in urban areasgrowth of urban population in five regionsfive different continents as well as in the world as a whole in three different years including the projection for the year 2030. Overall, percentages of global city-dwellers increased remarkably and a large proportiongreat ratio of the world population would live in cities in the future. As is obvious from the illustration, less than one-third of the global populationless than one-third global population lived in urban areas in 1950. The highest proportions of city dwellersThe majority of this city-dwellers were in North America, Latin America, and EuropeAmerican and European continents while only 15% of Africans and 17% of Asians15-17% Asian and African were in municipalities. After 57 years, around half of the global population lived in cities and in Europe, Latin America, and North Americain Europe and America, this ratio went as high as eight out of ten. More than one-third African lived in urban areas in this year while it was slightly over 40% in Asia. It is projected that six out of ten peoplepersons in the world will live in urban areas in 2030. In this year more than 8 persons in every ten in America would be city living population while almost the same proportionalmost a same ratio would prevail for the European city-dwellers. In Africa and Asia, more than half of the population will start living in different cities.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The report gives a clear overall sense that urban populations rise across the period and follows a logical chronological sequence with several relevant figures. Its main limitation is the imprecise merging of Latin America and North America, which obscures the chart’s strongest regional contrasts; the highest priority is to separate those regions and explicitly compare North America’s consistent lead with Africa’s lowest but steadily increasing proportions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report identifies the overall rise in urban populations and includes several relevant comparisons for 1950, 2007, and 2030. It is weakened by imprecise grouping of Latin America and North America as America, and it does not clearly state that North America is highest throughout while Africa remains lowest.
Separate North America from Latin America and add the strongest comparisons: North America leads at 64%, 79%, and 87%, while Africa rises from 15% to a projected 51%.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically ordered from introduction to overview and then chronological details. However, it is one long paragraph, and several comparisons are packed into dense sentences.
Use three paragraphs: introduction and overview, 1950 and 2007 comparisons, then 2030 projections.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary for the chart, but word choices such as municipalities, ratio, and city living population are sometimes unnatural or imprecise.
Use precise Task 1 terms such as proportion, urban population, regions, projected, and percentage points.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is generally clear, but there are repeated article, plural, and preposition errors, especially with percentages and population groups.
Check article use after fractions and use plural forms such as city dwellers, Africans, Asians, and people.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in the world and in different continents.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.