IELTS Academic writing: Proportion of population aged 65 and over

The graph below shows the proportion of the population aged 65 and over between 1940 and 2040 in three different countries.

Sample Answer:
The line graph illustrates the percentage of senior citizens of Japan, Sweden and USA who are 65 or above from 1940 to 2040.

Overall, it is apparent that the proportion of 65 and over people will rise in all the countries and it is foreseen that Japan will have the maximum percentage of senior citizens by 2040.

In Japan, a slight decrease was seen in proportion of people aged 65 or over in the initial years from 1940 to 1960 before it surged gradually to 10% in 2020. It is predicted that the percentage will witness a steep growth to reach 25% by 2030 followed by a marginal increase to 27% by 2040.

The proportion of people aged 65 and above were higher in USA at 10% than Sweden at around 7%. However, after experiencing some fluctuations Sweden’s population surpassed USA in 2000, accounting to 15%. The proportion of people who were 65 and over in Sweden reached a peak of 20% in 2020 and is projected to further soar to 25% by 2040. On the contrary, percentage of USA citizens aged 65, plateaued from 1980 till 2020 at 15% and is speculated to have the least percentage of senior citizens amounting to 23% by 2040.

Band 7