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Household spending pattern for households in three income categories -Task 1 Bar Graph Band 9 Report

Updated: Jul 2

You should spend 20 minutes on this task.


The chart below shows the average household spending pattern for households in three income categories as a proportion of their income.


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


Write at least 150 words.


Task 1 Bar Graph Band 9 Report Sample - The chart shows the average household spending pattern for households in three income categories as a proportion of their income.

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Sample Report 1

The bar chart delineates the distribution of spending across various categories as a proportion of income for households classified into low, medium, and high income brackets.


At the outset, it is clear that housing and transport represent the most substantial financial commitments for all income levels, while expenditures on entertainment and education are notably modest in comparison. The chart also reveals a distinct propensity among high-income households to prioritize retirement savings far more than their less affluent counterparts.


Delving deeper, the expenditure on housing is remarkably consistent across all income groups, claiming close to 30% of household income. Transport expenses also hold a significant share, with low and medium-income families allocating roughly one-fifth of their budget to this category. In stark contrast, expenses related to food at home and utilities are more burdensome for low-income families, each consuming about 13% of their income, a figure that diminishes with rising income levels.


On the upper end of the income spectrum, there is a notable emphasis on planning for the future, with 17% of income directed towards retirement savings, a figure that sharply contrasts with the 10% and 3% allocated by medium and low-income groups, respectively. Despite varying incomes, the allocation towards entertainment and education remains consistently low across the board, underscoring a universal trend in spending priorities.


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Sample Report 2

The chart illustrates the expenditure patterns of households across three income brackets—low, medium, and high—across various spending categories.


Overall, housing and transportation emerge as the primary expenses across all income levels, claiming the largest proportion of household income. Conversely, the least amount of spending is allocated towards entertainment and education. Notably, high-income families dedicate a significantly larger portion of their income to retirement savings compared to their lower-income counterparts.


Focusing on specifics, housing consistently accounts for the largest expense, absorbing nearly 30% of income in each category. Transportation follows, with low and medium-income households allocating around 20% of their income to this sector. In contrast, food at home and utility expenses claim a higher percentage of income in low-income households, approximately 13% each, which is considerably more than that observed in medium and high-income groups.


Additionally, high-income earners allocate 17% of their earnings to retirement savings, a stark contrast to the 10% and 3% observed in medium and low-income families, respectively. On the other hand, expenditures on entertainment and education remain minimal across all groups, underscoring a commonality in spending priorities regardless of income level.



Sample Report 3

The given bar chart provides information about a typical family’s income divided into low, medium and high salary groups, and their proportion of expending patterns among ten categories.


Overall, though the low-income households spend the major share of their earnings on food at home and utilities, all the earning groups in general use their highest percentage of income on housing and transportation sectors. However, high earning families tend to allocate more money for the retirement savings.


Attracting almost 30 percent of total earning of each income category, housing sector occupied the leading share of expenditure of all the three income groups. On the other hand, people with low and medium income brackets spend roughly one-fifth of their earnings on transportation, the second-highest spending sector after housing. However, low-income households use around 13 percent of their earnings on food at home and utilities each, which is significantly higher than that of the other two groups who spend below 10 percent of their earnings in these two areas.


Meanwhile, the high-end income holders use 17 percent of their earnings for the retirement savings, which is significantly higher than that of the medium and low-income groups who spend only 10 and 3 percent, respectively. However, entrainment and education remained the lowest expenditure sectors for all the earning groups.


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