How to Describe Trends

In order to get a good mark, you need to describe the most important changes
in a chart or graph.
To do this, you need to describe trends. These are movements in data. To
make them easier to see, try to outline the trends in your mind. You should
describe three or four trends in your answer. Look at this example:

The number of students from Thailand and

Japan who studied in Australia
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000
Thailand
6,000
Japan
4,000
2,000
0
2013 2014 2015 2016

There are four main trends here:

-Thailand has an upward trend.
- Japan has a downward trend.
- Both Thailand and Japan move up and down.
- Japan started with the higher number of students, but Thailand overtook
them.

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First, let’s look at the vocabulary needed to describe basic movements in data.
This list of words is illustrated by describing this line graph.

The rate of car theft in the UK per 1000 vehicles

10

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

The trends are:

Up: 2010-2011
Down: 2011-2012
Up and down: 2012-2015
No change: 2015-2016
The highest point: 2015

Upward movements
There are grammatical differences when using these words as either verbs or
nouns. First, let’s look at verbs. In the graph the timeline ends in 2016, so we
need to use the past tense of the verbs.
Preposition – ‘by’ and ‘to’. ‘By’ tells you the size of the change. ‘To’ tells you
the figure at the end of the change.

Verb By To
Rise It rose by 3% It rose to 9%
Grow It grew by 3% It grew to 9%
Increase It increased by 3% It increased to 9%

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You can also use the same words as nouns. When using the words as nouns,
you generally use the present tense form.

Preposition – ‘in’ and ‘of’. We use ‘in’ to describe changes in things and ‘of’
to describe changes in number or amount.

Noun Of In
Rise There was a rise of 3% There was a 3% rise in the rate
of car theft.
Grow There was a growth of 3% There was a 3% growth in the
(Note- the past participle is rate of car theft.
used here).
Increase There was an increase of 3% There was a 3% increase in the
rate of car theft.

Downward movements

The grammar is the same for downward movements.

Verb By To
Decrease It decreased by 5% It decreased to 4%
Fall It fell by 5% It fell to 4%
Decline It declined by 5% It declined to 4%

Noun Of In
Decrease There was a decrease of There was a 5% decrease in
5% the rate of car theft.
Fall There was a fall of 5% There was a 5% fall in the rate
of car theft.
Decline There was a decline of There was a 5% decline in the
5% rate of car theft.

Up and down
When describing a period when the data goes both up and down, you can use
the word ‘fluctuate’. The word can be used as a verb and a noun.
Verb Example Purpose
Fluctuate (2012-2015) It fluctuated Tells the highest and lowest point
between 3% and 5% of the movements.

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Noun Example Purpose
A fluctuation There was a 2% The difference in size between
fluctuation. the highest and lowest points.

No change

At - introduces a stable number.

Verb Example
Stabilise It stabilised at 6%
Remain steady It remained steady at 6%

The highest point

Verb Noun Example

Peak (reach) a peak It peaked at 9% / It reached a peak of 9%

Patterns to Compare Two Data Points

From … to … / Between … and … Used to show a period of time.

The proportion of engineering undergraduates

in the UK who are female
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Between 2011 and 2014, the proportion of female students fluctuated

between 8% and 11%.
From 2014 to 2016, the proportion of female students grew by 5%.

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Size of Change

It is important to describe the size of a change. This is the key vocabulary.

Large

Adjective Adverb Example

Dramatic Dramatically There was a dramatic growth in price
/ The price grew dramatically
Significant Significantly There was a significant fall in price /
the price fell significantly

Medium

Adjective Adverb Example

Moderate Moderately There was a moderate fall in price /
The price fell moderately

Small

Adjective Adverb Example

Slight Slightly There was a slight fall in price / The
price fell slightly

Choosing the Correct Tense

To get a good grammar score in this task, it is vital to work out which tense you
should use. Usually, the charts and graphs are dated in the past, so you need to
use the past tense. However, sometimes a graph or chart is set at a future
date. In the below example, one of the pie charts is labeled for the year 2050.

Projection. An estimate or forecast of a future situation or trend based on a

study of present ones.

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Below are two pie charts providing demographic (population) information
about Mongolia in 2000 and projections for 2050.

2000 2050
0-14 15-59 60+ 0-14 15-59 60+

12%

17%
26%
43%

45%
57%

Skill: Relabeling indexes. It is a good idea to describe the indexes (the

categories of information). For instance, here one age group is 0-14, but
instead we may just write ‘children’. Another is ‘60+’ but we may say ‘elderly
people’.

The proportion of children is projected to fall dramatically.

The proportion of elderly people is projected to grow slightly.
The proportion of people aged 15-59 is projected to rise moderately.

Using Multiplication
Another way to describe the size of change is to state how many times a figure
has increased or decreased.

Times 2 double the figure doubled from five to ten percent

Times 3 triple the figure tripled from five to 15 percent
Times 4 quadruple the figure quadrupled from five to 20
percent

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 The household recycling rates (%) in three European countries
100
90
80
70
60 Spain
50
France
40
30 Germany
20
10
0
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

From 2008 to 2014, the recycling rate in France doubled, rising from 40 to 80
percent.
Between 2008 and 2012, the recycling rate in Germany halved, falling from 60
to 30 percent.
Over the period, the recycling rate in France tripled, rising from 30 to 90
percent.

The Speed of Change

Fast

Adjective Adverb Example

Fast Quickly There was a fast growth in price / The
price grew quickly
Rapid Rapidly There was a rapid growth in price /
The price grew rapidly

Medium

Adjective Adverb Example

Steady Steadily There was a steady growth in price /
The price grew steadily
Gradual Gradually There was a gradual growth in price /
The price grew gradually

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Slow

Adjective Adverb Example

Slow Slowly There was a slow growth in price / The
price grew slowly

➔ Look at how the vocabulary is used for the following graph.

The number of visitors to three museums in New York

900,000
800,000
700,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
June July August September

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Natural History

The National 9/11 Museum

Overall / Over the period. The whole timeframe of the graph, so in this
instance it means from June to September.

From June to August the number of visitors to the Museum of Natural History
grew slightly.

Overall, the number of visitors to the National 9/11 Museum increased

gradually.

Between August and September, the number of visitors to the Museum of

Modern Art fell rapidly.

Between June and August, the number of visitors to the Museum of Modern
Art grew slowly.

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Skill: State the Period, the Change and Data

This is a way to use all the vocabulary you have learned in this lesson in one
sentence. First, you state the time period, then the trend and then describe
the data. For example, for the following line graph, you could write.

Between 1970 and 1990, the amount of energy used by the industry sector fell
rapidly by just over 20,000 (to finish at approximately 40,000) / from just over
60,000 (to finish at approximately 40,000).

Energy Usuage by Sector

80,000
Industry
Homes
Thousands of tonnes of oil

60,000 Transport

40,000

20,000

0
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Amount / number of. Use ‘amount of’ for uncountable nouns, and ‘number
of’ for countable nouns. In this case, ‘energy’ is an uncountable noun so we
must use ‘amount’.

Between 1970 and 1990, the amount of energy used by the industry sector
declined significantly by approximately 20,000 tonnes.

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