IELTS Task 1 pie chart: how to describe proportions

A pie chart shows how a whole is divided. Most Task 1 pie questions give you two or three pies from different years, so you are describing how the shares changed.

Shares, not amounts

This is the trap most candidates fall into. A pie chart tells you proportions, not totals. If agriculture used 70% of a country's water in 2000 and 58% in 2020, you know its share fell. You do not know whether it used less water, because the total may have grown.

• Write: agriculture's share fell to 58%.
• Do not write: agriculture used less water.

Our water use sample is written with this care, and the notes explain why.

Percentages and percentage points

When a share moves from 70% to 58%, it fell by twelve percentage points, not by 12%. Using “percentage points” correctly is a small detail that shows precision.

Fractions and approximations

Varying the way you give figures helps your vocabulary score, as long as the approximation is accurate:

• 50% = half; 25% = a quarter; 33% = a third; 75% = three quarters
• 58% = well over half; 48% = just under half; 62% = almost two thirds
• 9% to 16% = almost doubled

How to organise two pies

Two good options:

1. By year: one body paragraph for the first pie, one for the second, comparing back to the first. This suits big, simple changes.
2. By trend: one paragraph for the categories whose share grew and one for those that shrank. This suits many small changes.

Small slices can be grouped: “donations and other sources together accounted for just 8%”. Our university income sample does this.

Common pie chart mistakes

• Treating shares as amounts.
• Giving every slice equal attention, even a 3% slice that never changes.
• No overview. The overview for a pie question is usually: the largest share in each year, and the biggest change.

Practise

Read both pie models in the Task 1 samples, and keep the language for trends open while you write.