IELTS graph 229 - Prevalence of obesity among boys and girls by ethnicity

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1/ Graph Writing - Column/ Bar Graph:

» You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The bar charts below show the prevalence of obesity among boys and girls aged 12 to 19 years by ethnicity, in the United States for the years 2004 and 2014.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

                      Prevalence of obesity among boys aged 12-19 years, by
                                 ethnicity; United States, 2004 and 2014.

Obesity among boys aged 12 to 19 in the United States

                     Prevalence of obesity among girls aged 12-19 years, by
                                 ethnicity; United States, 2004 and 2014.

Obesity among girls aged 12 to 19 in the United States

                                                        Source: www.cdc.gov

 

Sample Answer:
The bar graphs reveal data on obesity rates among the US boys and girls between 12 and 19 years in 2004 and 2014 based on their demographics. Overall, more Hispanic boys suffered from obesity while this rate was higher among the Non-Hispanic black girls.

According to the first column graph, more than one out of ten Non-Hispanic white boys who aged between 12 and 19 were corpulent in 2004. A similar percentage of boys who were Hispanic or Non-Hispanic blacks suffered from the same problem. On the contrary, 9% girls of this age group from the Non-Hispanic US citizens were overweight, slightly less than that of boys from the same ethnicity. However, the obesity rate among Non-Hispanic black girls was the highest, 16% in this year, which was 5% higher than that of boys from the same ethnic group and 7 and 4 percent higher than that of white and Hispanic girls respectively.

After a decade, the percentage of obese Hispanic boys increased to 27% which was a 14% rise. Every one in five Non-Hispanic boys were overweight in 2014 which was slightly more than that of while boys. Finally, the rate of obesity among Non-Hispanic girls swelled to 29%, a 13% rise, which was higher than that of other ethnic girls. Evidently, more Hispanic boys and Non-Hispanic girls, 27 and 29% consecutively, were obese in the US in 2014 than boys and girls of other ethnicity.

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Nguyen Thương Vu
The provided bar graphs illustrate the obesity rates of US children in 2004 and 2014. As can be seen, obesity was more common among Hispanic boys and non-Hispanic black girls.

The proportions of overweight boys in all three ethnicities were quite similar in the year 2004, ranging from 11% to 13%. However, after a decade, the figure regarding Hispanic boys doubled to 27%, which was 7 percent higher than that among non-Hispanic white ones. Additionally, 17% of black boys had been overweight in 2014.

16 percent of Non-Hispanic Black girls were overweight in 2004, which was the highest, compared with nine percent of white girls and 12% Hispanic ones. The most substantial increase was also seen in the group of Non-Hispanic Black, a thirteen-percent increase to become 29% after 10 years. Interestingly, obesity rates in the two remaining groups both rose by 5%.

And finally, it is worth noticing that regarding races, non-Hispanic white children were less likely to be overweight in general.