IELTS Writing Task 1 bar chart: adults' physical activities

The bar chart compares the proportion of adults in one country who did five different types of physical activity at least once a month in 2005 and 2025.

Overall, walking was by far the most popular activity in both years. While participation in gym and fitness classes and in cycling grew considerably over the twenty-year period, swimming and team sports became less common.

Just over half of adults (52%) walked for exercise in 2005, and this figure rose to 61% in 2025, keeping walking well ahead of every other activity. The most remarkable change was in gym and fitness classes, whose participation rate more than doubled from 11% to 27%, moving them from the least popular activity to the second most popular. Cycling also gained ground, rising from 14% to 23%.

In contrast, swimming, which had been the second most common activity in 2005 at 18%, fell to just 11% two decades later. Team sports followed a similar but less pronounced downward trend, with participation slipping from 12% to 9%, which made them the least popular form of physical activity by 2025.