Academic Writing Task 1 · bar chart

Incidents and injuries per 100 million passenger miles in 2002

The chart below shows the number of incidents and injuries per 100 million passenger miles traveled (PMT) by transportation type in 2002.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Incidents and Injuries per 100 Million PMT, 2002 (No. per 100 million PMT)

Incidents
Injuries

View the data

	Commuter Rail	Heavy Rail	Light Rail	Bus	Demand Respond
Incidents	20	50	75	75	225
Injuries	18	35	38	65	172

Chart redrawn by BandLadder from the data in the original IELTS practice task. Many IELTS practice tasks come from the Cambridge IELTS series (Cambridge University Press & Assessment); all rights in the original tasks remain with their owners.

Band 8 sample answer

The bar chart illustrates the frequency of incidents and injuries per 100 million passenger miles travelled (PMT) across five different transportation modes in 2002. Overall, it is evident that Demand Respond services experienced the highest rates of both incidents and injuries, whereas Commuter Rail reported the lowest figures.

Demand Respond stood out as the most hazardous mode of transport, with 225 incidents and 172 injuries per 100 million PMT. In contrast, Commuter Rail was the safest option, recording only 20 incidents and 18 injuries. The remaining three categories—Heavy Rail, Light Rail, and Bus—showed intermediate levels of safety.

Regarding the other modes, Light Rail and Bus both recorded 75 incidents, although the number of injuries differed, with Bus reporting 65 injuries compared to 38 for Light Rail. Heavy Rail saw 50 incidents and 35 injuries. Notably, for every category, the number of incidents consistently exceeded the number of injuries. The gap between incidents and injuries was most pronounced in the Demand Respond category, where the difference reached 53, while the smallest disparity was observed in Commuter Rail, with a difference of only two.

182 words. Every figure in the answer comes from the chart above.

How to write about bar charts

Compare the biggest and smallest bars before anything else.
If the bars show years, describe change; if they show places, describe rank.
Round sensibly and say 'just over' or 'nearly' rather than guessing decimals.

illustrates: provides a visual representation of the given data
frequency: the rate at which something occurs over time
hazardous: involving a high level of risk or danger
intermediate: coming between two things in time or position
consistently: in every case or on every occasion
disparity: a great difference between two or more things

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Frequently asked questions

What should the overview say?

Demand Respond services recorded significantly higher rates of both incidents and injuries compared to all other transport types, while Commuter Rail was the safest mode of travel.

How long should an IELTS Task 1 answer be?

At least 150 words; 170 to 200 is the safe range. Spend about 20 minutes on it and leave 40 for Task 2, which carries twice the marks.

How do I describe bar charts?

Compare the biggest and smallest bars before anything else. If the bars show years, describe change; if they show places, describe rank. Round sensibly and say 'just over' or 'nearly' rather than guessing decimals.