Write at least 150 words · 20 minutes
The table below shows the number of visitors to four museums in a capital city in 2005, 2015 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Museum | 2005 | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Science Museum | 850 | 1100 | 1350 |
| Art Gallery | 1200 | 1050 | 980 |
| History Museum | 640 | 720 | 700 |
| Transport Museum | 210 | 380 | 560 |
How to structure your report
- Introduction: paraphrase what the table shows.
- Overview: two or three main features or trends, with no numbers. This is the most important sentence for your band.
- Two body paragraphs: group the details logically and compare them, quoting the key figures.
- No opinion and no conclusion of your own: describe only what is shown.
A plan for this chart
- Introduction: paraphrase the table: visitors to four museums in a capital city in 2005, 2015 and 2025, in thousands.
- Overview: the Science and Transport Museums grew steadily, the Art Gallery declined, and the Science Museum replaced the Art Gallery as the most visited.
- Body 1: the two museums that grew: the Science Museum (largest increase) and the Transport Museum (fastest growth).
- Body 2: the Art Gallery (steady fall from first place) and the History Museum (little change).
Model report
163 words
The table compares the number of visitors to four museums in a capital city in 2005, 2015 and 2025.
Overall, the Science Museum and the Transport Museum became steadily more popular, while visits to the Art Gallery fell. By 2015, the Science Museum had replaced the Art Gallery as the most visited of the four.
The Science Museum saw the largest increase in absolute terms, with visitor numbers rising from 850,000 in 2005 to 1.1 million in 2015 and 1.35 million in 2025. The Transport Museum, although it was the least visited museum in every year, grew the fastest: its annual visitors more than doubled, from 210,000 to 560,000.
In contrast, the Art Gallery, which had been the most popular museum in 2005 with 1.2 million visitors, lost visitors steadily, falling to 1.05 million in 2015 and 980,000 in 2025. The figures for the History Museum changed relatively little, rising from 640,000 to 720,000 before dipping slightly to 700,000 in the final year.
Written by Acedmi to show what a high-band report looks like. It is not an official IELTS sample, and your own ideas can be different.
Useful vocabulary
- visitor numbers
- How many people visit a place.
- “Visitor numbers at the Science Museum rose steadily.”
- in absolute terms
- In actual numbers, not as a percentage.
- “The Science Museum had the largest increase in absolute terms.”
- more than double
- Become over twice as large.
- “Visitors to the Transport Museum more than doubled.”
- decline steadily
- Fall at a regular rate.
- “Attendance at the Art Gallery declined steadily.”
- dip slightly
- Fall by a small amount.
- “Numbers dipped slightly to 700,000 in 2025.”
- relatively stable
- Changing only a little.
- “History Museum figures remained relatively stable.”
- replace ... as
- Take the place that another thing had.
- “The Science Museum replaced the Art Gallery as the most popular.”
- the least visited
- The one with the fewest visitors.
- “The Transport Museum was the least visited in every year.”
Common mistakes
- Copying every number in the table. Select the key figures: the start, the end and any change of direction.
- Getting the units wrong. The table is in thousands, so 850 means 850,000 visitors, not 850.
- Writing about each museum in a separate paragraph with no comparison. Group the museums that rose and the ones that fell, and compare them.