The question
The chart below shows how a city council divided its annual budget between seven services in 2014 and 2024.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Service
- 2014
- 2024
| Percentage of total budget | 2014 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Education | 34% | 30% |
| Social care | 20% | 31% |
| Transport and roads | 14% | 11% |
| Housing | 10% | 12% |
| Waste collection and recycling | 8% | 8% |
| Parks and leisure | 7% | 3% |
| Community safety | 7% | 5% |
Key features to report
- Overview: education and social care took the largest shares in both years (over half of the budget combined); social care grew strongly while most other services lost share.
- Social care rose from 20% to 31%, narrowly overtaking education, which fell from 34% to 30%.
- Housing was the only other service to gain (10% to 12%), while waste collection and recycling stayed at 8%.
- Transport and roads fell from 14% to 11%, and community safety from 7% to 5%.
- Parks and leisure more than halved (7% to 3%), becoming the smallest item of spending.
Model answer
190 words · written by Abroadway to show band 9 features (not an official IELTS sample)
The bar chart illustrates the proportion of a city council's annual budget that was allocated to seven different services in 2014 and 2024.
Overall, education and social care accounted for the largest shares of spending in both years, together making up more than half of the budget. The most significant change was the rapid growth of social care, which came at the expense of most other services, particularly parks and leisure.
In 2014, education received just over a third of the budget (34%), followed by social care at 20%. Ten years later, however, social care had risen to 31%, narrowly overtaking education, whose share had fallen to 30%. Housing was the only other service to receive a larger proportion, increasing modestly from 10% to 12%, while spending on waste collection and recycling remained unchanged at 8%.
All the remaining services saw their shares cut. The budget for transport and roads fell from 14% to 11%, and community safety dropped from 7% to 5%. The sharpest reduction was in parks and leisure, whose share more than halved from 7% to just 3%, making it the smallest item of expenditure in 2024.
Useful language
- budget
- social care
- education
- proportion
- overtaking
- halved
- expenditure
- allocated
- overall
Step-by-step method in the free lesson Bar charts and comparison language.
Write your own report and get a band estimate
Free, no account needed. Aim for 20 minutes and at least 150 words.