IELTS Task 1 table: Daily smartphone use by age group
TableAcademic
The question
The table below shows the average number of hours per day that people in four age groups in one country spent using a smartphone in 2015 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
Average daily smartphone use (hours)
| 2015 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| 16–24 | 3.1 | 5.4 |
| 25–34 | 2.6 | 4.2 |
| 35–54 | 1.8 | 3.0 |
| 55+ | 0.6 | 1.9 |
Figures are hours per day.
The figures are invented for practice. They are not real statistics.
Write your answer
Then get an estimated band, with checks on your overview, the key features and every figure.
0 words · 150 more to reach 150
Write your own answer first, then compare. Reading a model before you write tends to make you copy it.
The plan
Key features for the overview
- Use rose in every age group, and the younger the group, the higher the use.
- The youngest rose most in hours; the oldest rose most in proportion.
How the details are grouped
- The two younger groups
- The two older groups
Model answer
186 wordsThe table compares how many hours a day people in four age groups in one country spent on their smartphones in 2015 and 2025.
Overall, smartphone use increased in every age group over the decade, and younger people spent the most time on their phones in both years. The biggest rise in absolute terms was among the youngest users, while the oldest group showed the largest increase in relative terms.
In 2015, people aged 16 to 24 used their phones for 3.1 hours a day, slightly more than the 2.6 hours recorded for 25 to 34-year-olds. By 2025, these figures had climbed to 5.4 and 4.2 hours respectively, meaning that the youngest group's daily use grew by more than two hours.
Usage was lower among older people, but it also rose considerably. The figure for those aged 35 to 54 went up from 1.8 to 3.0 hours, an increase of two thirds. Most strikingly, the over-55s, who spent just 0.6 hours a day on their phones in 2015, were using them for 1.9 hours by 2025, more than three times as long as ten years earlier.
The highlighted paragraph is the overview. Scored by the MyBandPrep checker on 7 October 2026. An estimate, not an examiner’s mark. How scoring works
Why it works
- Task Achievement
- The overview makes the distinction between absolute and relative change, which is the most interesting feature here. Every age group is reported with both years.
- Coherence and Cohesion
- Younger and older groups get a paragraph each. “Respectively” lets two pairs of figures share one sentence clearly.
- Lexical Resource
- Precise terms for comparison: in absolute terms, in relative terms, an increase of two thirds, more than three times as long. The phrase “daily use” and “usage” avoid repeating the question.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Past perfect (“had climbed to”), a participle clause (“meaning that…”), a non-defining relative clause and the past continuous (“were using them”) show range.
Phrases worth reusing
- in absolute terms
- in relative terms
- these figures had climbed to
- respectively
- an increase of two thirds