IELTS Writing Task 1 table: library borrowing by category

The table gives information about how many items, in thousands, were borrowed from public libraries in one city in 2005, 2015 and 2025, broken down into five categories.

Overall, while the total number of loans remained fairly stable, there was a marked shift from printed books for adults towards digital formats. Children's books were the only printed category to grow in popularity.

In 2005, adult fiction was the most borrowed category, with 820,000 loans, followed by adult non-fiction at 540,000. Over the next two decades, however, both declined steadily, with fiction falling to 430,000 and non-fiction plummeting to just 190,000, roughly a third of its original figure. By contrast, loans of children's books rose gradually from 460,000 to 510,000.

The most dramatic change was in e-books, which were almost non-existent in 2005, with only 10,000 loans, but soared to 620,000 by 2025, making them the most popular category of all. Audiobooks also became far more popular, increasing more than fivefold from 60,000 to 310,000. As a result, total borrowing, which had dipped slightly from 1.89 to 1.87 million between 2005 and 2015, recovered to 2.06 million in 2025.