IELTS · Guides · October 24, 2026 · 4 min read
IELTS Writing Task 1 bar chart: how to group and compare bars, with a sample answer
A bar chart compares categories: countries, age groups, products, sports. Sometimes each category has two or three bars side by side (men and women, 2010 and 2020), and sometimes the bars show change over time, in which case you treat it like a line graph. The skill the examiner looks for is comparison: a list of every bar in order is the commonest reason for a band 5 on a bar chart.
First, decide what the chart compares
Ask two questions before you write anything:
- What are the categories, and what are the groups within them? In a chart of five sports with bars for men and women, the categories are the sports and the groups are men and women.
- Is there time in the chart? If the bars are years, describe trends (rose, fell). If there is no time, describe differences (higher, the most popular, twice as many). Do not write increased when you are moving from one country to the next.
Find the main features
- the highest and lowest bars
- where the groups are furthest apart and where they are almost equal
- any category where the usual pattern is reversed (men ahead everywhere except one sport)
Two of these go into the overview, without numbers.
A model answer
Task: The bar chart below shows the average number of hours per week that people in four age groups spent on three leisure activities in one country in 2024. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Hours per week | 16–24 | 25–44 | 45–64 | 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online video | 14 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
| Reading | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| Exercise | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
The bar chart compares how many hours a week people of different ages in one country spent watching online video, reading and exercising in 2024.
Overall, online video was the main leisure activity for younger people, but its popularity fell steadily with age, while reading showed exactly the opposite pattern. The oldest group spent the most time on both reading and exercise.
The 16–24 age group watched online video for 14 hours a week, almost five times as long as people aged 65 and over, who spent just 3 hours on it. The figure dropped with each age group, to 9 hours among those aged 25–44 and 5 hours among 45–64-year-olds.
Reading, by contrast, rose from only 2 hours a week among the youngest group to 8 hours among the oldest. Exercise varied less, between 3 and 6 hours, and was lowest for people aged 25–44. Among the over-65s, reading was the most common of the three activities, ahead of exercise and video.
163 words. Each detail paragraph is built around a comparison, not around one bar after another.
Notice what the answer does not do: it does not explain why people aged 25–44 exercise least. It is tempting to add because they have the least free time, but the chart shows hours, not reasons.
Language for comparison
- the most / least popular, the highest / lowest figure
- twice / three times as many as, almost five times as long as
- higher than, slightly lower than, well above, far below
- whereas, while, by contrast, in comparison
- a similar figure, roughly the same, equal numbers of
- followed by, ranked second, the second most common
Common mistakes
- Describing bars one by one in the order they appear. Group them.
- Using trend verbs without time. Exercise increased from the 25–44 group to the over-65s sounds odd; was higher among the over-65s is better.
- Leaving out the units: 14 means nothing; 14 hours a week does.
- Adding reasons that the chart does not give.
Practise in the practice room
Write an answer and get band scores for all four criteria with comments:
The four-paragraph structure for every chart is in the Writing Task 1 guide. Shares of a whole are covered in the pie chart guide.
Common questions
Bar chart or bar graph? The same thing. IELTS tasks use both names.
What if the bars show years? Treat it like a line graph: describe the trend for each category, and the overview gives the overall direction.
How precise should I be when reading a bar? Round sensibly: about 14 hours, just under 6. The examiner does not check decimal points.
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