IELTS Task 1: Pie charts
A pie chart shows how a whole divides up, so the report is about proportion. When two or more pies are given — which is usual — the task is comparison, and what changed between them is the point.
Proportion without repeating percentages
| Roughly | Say it as |
|---|---|
| 50% | half of, one in two |
| 33% | a third of, one in three |
| 25% | a quarter of, one in four |
| 10% | a tenth of, one in ten |
| Small | a small minority, a negligible share, barely any |
| Large | the majority, the largest share, the bulk of |
Mixing these with exact percentages reads far better than twelve figures in a row, and it is one of the easiest places in the paper to show lexical range without reaching for unusual words.
More than one pie
- Group by what changed most rather than describing each chart in turn.
- Name what stayed the same too — an unchanged share is a finding.
- Where the pies are different years, this is change over time and takes past-tense trend language.
- Where they are different groups, it is comparison and takes comparative language.
Shares should total about 100%. If your described shares do not, you have misread a segment — worth ten seconds to check, because it is a Task Achievement error.
Pie charts — FAQs
2 questions
No. Cover the largest, the smallest and anything that changes markedly between charts.
Usually one per chart, or better, one per theme of change. Grouping by theme reads better than chart-by-chart.
More writing question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.