How to Describe Pie Charts in IELTS Writing Task 1

Learn in easy steps how to describe IELTS Pie Charts for writing task 1. Below are easy techniques to help you write each paragraph: introduction, overview, body paragraph 1 and body paragraph 2.

Pie Chart

IELTS pie chart lesson

Source: The above pie charts were not created by IELTS Liz.

Describing Pie Charts Step by Step

Below you will find easy to follow advice on how to describe your IELTS pie chart paragraph by paragraph.

Introduction

You must paraphrase the information given at the top of the charts “The graph shows the main sources of energy for the USA in 1980 and 1990”. You cannot copy this, you must use your own language.

Tips

  • the graph = the pie chart
  • shows = illustrates
  • main sources of energy = energy production from different sources
  • for the USA = don’t change this
  • in 1980 and 1990 = in two different years (1980 and 1990)

Try writing your introduction before checking the model answer. To see model introduction, click here: Model Answer

The pie charts illustrate the changes in energy production from five different sources (oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power) for the USA in two different years (1980 and 1990).

Overview

The overview contains the key features of the charts. Answer the questions below to find the key features.

  1. What was the main source of energy in 1980?
  2. What was the main source of energy in 1990?
  3. Which produced the least energy in 1980?
  4. Which produced the least energy in 1990?
  5. Did the amount of energy produced by each source change a lot or just a little between the years?
  6. Did all types of energy increase by 1990?

Now write your overview before you check the model. To see model overview, click here: Model Answer

Overall, oil  constituted the main source of energy production in both years, while hydroelectric power  produced the least energy. There was a slight decrease in production from oil and natural gas, whereas an increase can be seen in the figures for coal and nuclear power.

Body Paragraph 1

This paragraph will give details about oil and hydroelectric power, which we highlighted in the overview above.

Tips

  • You will need to write one sentence about oil comparing the percentage each year and then one sentence about hydroelectric power comparing the years.
  • You must add data (percentages and dates) to support each sentence

Here are two example sentences. Fill in the gaps with the right words.

The amount of energy produced by oil in the USA 1. ………………. 42% in 1980 and this, then, 2. ………………….. to a third (33%) in 1990. The proportion of energy from hydroelectric power, 3………………, remained constant in both years ………a mere 5%.

For answers, click here: Answers

  1. accounted for / comprised of / made up / was
  2. fell / declined / dropped / went down / decreased
  3. on the other hand / by contrast / in contrast ( we use a linker to highlight that this is opposing information to the previous sentence)
  4. at

Body Paragraph 2

This paragraph will give detail about the other sources of energy in the pie charts.

Tips

  • which sources increased?
  • which sources decreased?
  • what were the percentages for each source?

Again, fill in the gaps in these model sentences.

The energy generated by natural gas, which was the second 1. …………… source of energy in the USA in 1980, fell 2. ………. 1% to a quarter of all energy produced in 1990. In contrast, production by coal 3. ……………… from 22% to 27% in 1990 4. …………….. there was a 5% rise in energy from nuclear power to reach 10% in the second year.

For answers, click here: Answers

  1.  largest / major
  2. by (this is used when writing about differences in amounts)
  3. increased / rose / went up / climbed / grew
  4. while / whereas

Recommended Lessons

IELTS PIE Chart Model
Practice Writing Task 1 Charts

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Comments

  1. Hi liz ,,, why did you use “while / whereas” to fill the fourth gap although the following information is not a contrast ? I mean both increased by 5% why you didnt use and instead of while ?

    • The words “while” and “whereas” are not only used as contrasts. They are also used for comparisons. Therefore, they are the perfect linking words to use when making comparisons. Always remember that many words in any language might have more than one meaning, more than one usage and much will depend on context.

  2. Naved Raja Khan says

    The pie charts illustrate different sources of energy production for two different years (1980 and 1990) in America. The energy from different sectors are shown in perecentage.

    It is apparent from the pie charts that oil constitutes the major source of energy in both the years , whereas hydroelectric power was the least source of energy for the two different years.The oil sector shows a decline in energy production in the next year whereas the hydroelectric power sector remained stable.

    The energy generated by oil was 42% of the total energy in 1980 which then declined to a third of all energy generated in 1990. On the contrary , the hydroelectric power shares only 5% of the energy which remained to the same figure in the other year as well.

    Natural gas was the second major energy generator with a share of 26% in 1980 which drops by 1% and became a quarter of all energy generated in 1990.Additionally coal and nuclear power which contributed to 22% ad 5% of all energy increased to 27% and 10% in 1990 respectively.
    (suggestions are welcome)

  3. The pie chart unveils the information about the production of energy from various sources in USA in two years’ comparison (1980 and 1990).

    Overall, the highest proportion of oil was being used to produce energy in both the years. Whereas, hydroelectric power was the least interested amongst all. There has also been a significant drop in producing energy from oil in ten years. Moreover, a considerable increase in coal and nuclear energy was noticed despite the drop in other categories.

    In 1980, the oil constituted about two-fifths (42%) of the whole energy production which dropped to nearly one-third of the total in 1990. In opposite, hydroelectric power only produces 5% of energy in both the years (1980 and 1990).

    The energy produced from natural gas covered nearly one in five (26%) of the whole in 1980. This figure was dropped by 1% only to a quarter of all energy produced in 1990. On the contrary, coal and nuclear power went up by 5% to 27% and 10%, respectively.

  4. Waisullah says

    The pie chart illustrates the the changes in energy production from five different sources (oil, natural gas, hydroelectric power and nuclear power) for the USA in two different years(1980 and 1990).

    Overall, it can be observed that in both years oil was used the most to produce energy, while hydroelectric power constituted the least energy. There was a slight decrease in the production from oil and natural gas, whereas an increase can be seen in the figures for coal and nuclear power.

    In 1980, the percentage of power generation from oil and natural gas was 42% and 26% respectively. However these figures slightly dropped in 1990, with oil at mere 33% and natural gas at 25%.

    Conversely, in the total amount of enegy production of 1980, coal and nuclear power contributed 22% and 5% respectively, while the contribution of each source increased by 5% which reached at 27% for coal and and at 10% for nuclear power in 1990. Remarkably, in both years, the same amount of enegery was produced from hydroelectric power (5%).

    174W

  5. Hi Liz, I cannot thank you enough to show my gratitude on your work. Great job!

    Regarding one phrase that stuck in my mind: “The energy generated by natural gas, which was the second major source of energy in the USA in 1980, fell by 1% to a quarter of all energy in 1990.” Here, we know that in 1980 natural gas constituted 26% of total energy generated but in 1990 it was 25%. However, we do not know that the change was by 1% as the we do not know the numbers. Overall, I wanted to be sure if we can describe the “weight” change in percentages like that.

  6. Hi Liz,

    thank you for your generosity! I can’t thank you enough. I have a questions regarding tenses. In scenarios like the task 1 here,
    should we stick to “past tense” when describing? Or we can simply use simple present tense since we are stating facts.

    Thank you!

    • Your tense will depend on the data given. Data given in the past will require past tense. If not dates are given, you can use the present tense. And look out for any predictive graphs or charts which will require future forms.

      • Farangiz says

        The given pie chart delineates five main manufactures, namely oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power, of energy for the United States of America in 1980 compared to 1990. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that there were two downward trends in the proportion of natural gas and oil, while coal and nuclear power had upward trends in producing energy.
        The share of oil was below a half of energy in 1980, which is then decreased significantly by 9% from 42% to 33%. By contrast, natural gas produced 26% energy in 1980, then declined by 1% and accounted for the quarter of energy production in 1990.
        The energy generated by the proportion of coal underwent a considerable increase by 5% to 27% to over the quarter of the energy manufacturing. Hydroelectric power and nuclear power, on the other hand, were the same (5%) in 1980, however, the first one remained unchanged, whereas the latter rose by half to 10% in the USA.

  7. Hi Liz,

    I have one doubt about the phrase “the energy generated by natural gas in this example “, ‘energy’ is mentioned as an uncountable noun in your uncountable word list but here it is with the article ‘the’.

    You are doing a great job by spending your valuable time and thank you so much for that.

    Best wishes to you.

    • There are two articles “a” and “the”. The article “a” is never used with uncountable nouns because there are never one of them. For example, “traffic”, we do not say “a traffic” because there is no singular. However, the article “the” is not about numbers or counting how many there is. It is about whether the noun is defined or not. We can say “the traffic” which means we are referring to specific traffic. Please get my Grammar E-book to learn more about articles: https://elizabethferguson.podia.com/

  8. Treasure says

    The pie charts illustrates the percentage of energy produced from five different sources such as oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power in the USA in two different years (1980 and 1990).

    Overall, it can be seen that the main source of energy in 1980 and 1990 was through the use of oil whereas hydroelectric power produced the least energy. Similarly, there was a slight decrease in energy production from oil and natural gas while an increase can be seen in the figures for coal and nuclear power.

    As seen in the graph, In the first year, the amount of energy produced from oil accounted for 42% of the total energy produced from different sources, however, this then decreased to 33% in 1990. Meanwhile the proportion of energy generated from hydroelectric power remained constant in both years.

    Furthermore, nuclear power saw an increase in its energy production by 5% in the second year. Similarly, the amount of energy generated through the use of coal experienced a slight rise from 22% to 27% in that same year while natural gas which was the second largest source of energy in the USA, fell by 1%.

  9. Hasnain says

    Thank you so much Ma’am…..it’s helps alot….extremely useful website😊

  10. Santhosh Kumar says

    The pie chart illustrates the percentage of five different forms of energy(oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power) produced in the USA in two different years (1980 and 1990).
    Overall, it can be clearly seen that the most common form of energy was oil within the given period, even though there was a significant fall recorded in 1990. While more than half of the energy came from the two sources (oil and natural gas), the remaining only were generated from other sources (coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power). Furthermore, it is worth to notice that there was no change in the share from hydroelectric power production.
    On the one hand, Oil and natural gas together occupied more than half of the total production of energy in the USA during 1980 and 1990. However, while there was a dramatic fall in oil energy, declining from 42% to 33%, production from natural gas decreased only slightly from 26% to 25%.
    In contrast, generation of energy from both coal and nuclear power had witnessed a significant rise by 5% (Coal- from 22% to 27%; Nuclear power- from 5% to 10%) while the hydroelectric power generation only remained stable with 5% on both the years.

  11. OUMAIMA ZAIRI says

    Hey Teacher,
    First, I want to thank you endlessly for your efforts. Your lessons are useful. Please favour me with a small check to my essay for the example above.

    The pie graphs illustrate different sources of energy production in the USA ( oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power ) in the years 1980 and 1990.

    Overall, at the beginning of the period the amount of energy produced from oil was the largest segment while coal and hydroelectric power made the lowest production. In comparaison, at the end of the period oil made up the biggest part of the chart as well. Meanwhile, production by hydroelectric power was the least significant of the main sources of energy for the USA.

    The energy generated by coal accounted for 22% of the main sources of energy for USA in 1980 and had a moderate growth of 5% in 1990. That produced by nuclear power was 5% in the beginning of the period and experienced a twofold increase to one-tenth in the end of the period.

    Energy from oil which comprised almost a half of the general energy produced in 1980, fell to 33% in1990. Furthermore in 1980, energetic outputs from natural gas ere at 26% and decreased slightly by 1% to a quarter of the main energy produced in 1990. However, the proportion of energy produced from hydroelectric power remained constant in both years at 5%.

  12. A.K Roy says

    Thanks Liza

  13. vilea says

    Hello, Liz!
    I can’t help leaving a comment to express my gratitude and appreciation for your example. It makes it simple to teach how to write a report by merely following several steps.

    Best wishes for you!

    • I’m so pleased it was useful 🙂

      • Sevara says

        Hello Liz!Thank you very much for vivid explanation and clear ideas and clues about this type of task 1!I always was scared with pie-chart,but now im realised how to deal with them.Thank you!❤💕💗😘

        • Liz says

          I’m so glad you are more confident now. It’s just a matter of becoming more familiar with it all and have a clear approach 🙂

  14. my exam is tomorrow and I’ve finally got the hang of the writing task 1. Thank you Liz!
    I do think my answer is a little verbose.

  15. Hi Liza
    thank you for your great page and priceless information.

  16. Abhishek says

    Thank you so much mam
    Lots of love from Nepal😍😍

  17. This was the best lesson and the best way to explain how to write a pie chart.Thank you so much Liz.

  18. Jyoti Singh says

    Hey Liz!!

    You are doing a great job. Your tips are really useful and your efforts are remarkable.

  19. berry says

    Hi Liz, you doing so good. thank you.
    but just a quick one, please are there no conclusion in writing task 1?

  20. It was very easy to understand .thank u so much!!!

  21. Shishir Devkota says

    Thank you so much for your help while preparing for IELTS examination

  22. See full model answers for writing task 1 on this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-1-lessons-and-tips/

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