The charts below describe the population in Iran and Spain in 2010 and the expected population in 2060.
Summarise the information in the charts and make comparisons where appropriate.

Answer

The two bar charts show the actual and expected percentage of the population in three age groups (0-15, 16-55 and 55+ years) in Iran and Spain in 2010 and 2060.

In Iran in 2010 the number of people in the 0-15 age group was just under half (48.2%) of the total population, while the population aged 16-55 years was slightly higher (48.3%). In contrast, the number of Iranian people aged over represented only 3.5% of the population. By 2060, it is expected that the population will have aged significantly, with the number of people aged 0-15 years expected to decrease to 43.1%, while the number of people in the 16-55 and 55+ age groups is expected to increase to 50.2% and 6.8%, respectively.

In Spain in 2010 the percentage of young people was much lower (14.7%) compared to Iran, while the 16-55 and 55+ age groups made up 61.4% and 23.9% of the population, respectively. By 2060 the population of Spain is expected to age further with the number of people in the 0-15, 16-55 and 55+ age groups expected to be 11.3%, 48.5% and 40.2%, respectively.

Essay Notes

This question is quite challenging as there are 2 bar charts, and data is both for the past and the future and there are relatively few data points (12 in total). The introduction is particularly difficult because of the number of different elements that need to be included.

From a structural point of view the data can be readily divided logically in two ways. The first is by country and the second by year. It is best to divide the data by country as this leads to a more imple and clearer description of the data. In general, it is best not to logically divide the data into paragraphs by time. Data should be divided by time within a paragraph.

The first body paragraph focuses on Iranian data because it is the first bar chart presented in the question. The data is also described in chronological (time) order. The earliest to latest year and youngest to oldest age group is the order that is adopted throughout giving the essay a clear consistent structure. There are so few data points provided in the question that each individual point
should be described. However, it should be noted that trends are also described – notably that the population is expected to age and there are expected to be a higher proportion of older people in the future.

The second body paragraph describes the data for Spain. The data is presented in the same order as for the Iranian data and the only difference is that the situation in Iran is contrasted with that in Spain. Again the small amount of data means that each individual data point can be described which means that a reader who has not seen the original question should be able to reproduce the data exactly.