IELTS graph 322 - Changes in ownership of electrical appliances

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1/ Graph Writing - Line Graph:

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The charts below show the changes in ownership of electrical appliances and amount of time spent doing housework in households in one country between 1920 and 2019.

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

Write at least 150 words.


Percentage of households with electrical appliances (1920-2019)

Percentage of households with electrical appliances

Number of hours of housework* per week, per household (1920 - 2019)

Number of hours of housework* per week, per household

housework*  = washing clothes, preparing meals, cleaning

Model Answer 1:

The first line graph outlines how the electrical appliance ownership in households in a country transformed during a century commencing from 1920 while the second chart delineates how it had affected the time spent on household work per week by the citizens in this country.

As a general trend, with the increasing number of electrical devices possessed by families, their need for doing housework significantly declined.

As the graph reveals, only 30 percent of households in this country used to have vacuum cleaners and four out of ten families had washing machines in 1920. Refrigerators were a rare electric appliance at that time.   Just after two decades, however, refrigerator possessions shoot up, and almost half of the families owned these three electric items in their homes. More families started to own such devices and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, almost all households had fridges and vacuum cleaners. The washing machine was owned by more than 70% of families which slowly but steadily increased till 2019. At that point, there was hardly any family without a refrigerator or vacuum cleaner.

It is interesting to note that, with the increasing number of electric appliances owned by families, their need for doing household work like preparing meals, cleaning and washing clothes remarkably diminished. While they used to work for 50 hours a week doing such work in 1920, it decreased to 20 hours in 1960 and 10 in 2019.



Model Answer 2:

The line graphs show data on the ownership of household devices and the duration of housework done by families in a country between 1920 and 2019.

Overall, the possession of household machines had significantly increased since 1930, with refrigerators and vacuum cleaners being owned by every family. As a result, the amount of housework needed to be done by people declined proportionately.

According to the first graph, refrigerators were a rare commodity in houses in 1920, but their presence soared afterwards. Since 1980, every family in this country had been owning this device at home. A similar, but much smoother trend can be observed with vacuum cleaners, which were present at 3 of ten houses a century ago but are now held by 100% of all homes. Lastly, washing machines were owned by 40% of families in 1920 and reached 70% in just four decades. These days, it has remained just over 70%.

The second line chart indicates a direct correlation between the acquisition of essential household tools and the amount of work required to be done at home. Household work amount dropped dramatically from a high 50 hours per week in 1920 to a mere 10 hours per week in 2019.

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Keenan
I would like to post a sample answer that is more accurate than what is currently on the site.
Kavya
The first line graph shows us how the utilization of modern appliances in households increased over a century from 1920 to 2019, and the second line graph depicts how the housework done is affected in hours/week over the same century.

In general, due to the introduction of these technologies, the work rate in most of the houses had significantly been reduced.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, only a few electrical appliances were seen but now every home possesses most of them. For instance, in 1920, there were only a few refrigerators which increased to such an extent that there were no homes without them. Similarly, the ownership of vacuum cleaners constantly increased from 30 to 40%, with every household consisting of them. There was a great demand for washing machines in the past, but there are many homes at present with washing machines, which increased by about 25%.

Moreover, due to the presence of these devices and the developing technologies, people are doing less work compared to the past. For instance, washing clothes, preparing meals, and cleaning requires fewer hours compared to the past century. The number of hours of housework per week kept decreasing from 50 hours in 1920 to 20 hours in 1960 and 10 hours in 2019.

Anudeep Koneru
The first line graph provides information about the proportion of households with three electrical devices (washing machine, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner) in a country between 1920 and 2019, whereas the second line graph illustrates the amount of time spent by people doing housework every week in the same time period.

Overall, a significant increase in the use of washing machines, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners could be observed in this country between 1920 and 2019 and as a result, the need for household work done by people in the country decreased noticeably.

In the first graph, the washing machine leads the three devices in usage, at 40%. However, by 1960 it has become the lowest-used machine equalling vacuum cleaners, at 70%. From this point, the growth was very less until the end of the period with just a mere 2-4% increase. The vacuum cleaner was the second most used device with 30 out 100 people using it in 1920, grew slightly every two decades with no serious fluctuations to 100% by 2000, and stayed there till 2019. Refrigerators with less than 1% of users in 1920 saw an astronomic rise to 90 % in 40 years, from here a small increase to 100% in 1980, which remained unchanged for the next 39 years.

In the second line graph, it is clear that time spent on housework took a hit in the span of 100 years. On average 50 hours were spent in 1920 which fell down steadily all the way to 10 hours by the end of the period.