Section Two - Describing and Comparing Data
Section 2 / Lesson 2 - Percentages
In this lesson, we'll look at how to accurately describe data given in percentages. Data can be in this form in any type of writing task one question.
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A sentence describing a percentage always needs four things.
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1. The percentage + of
2. The whole
3. A verb
4. The divided part
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If you look at this bar chart on healthcare and military spending, we can see Denmark spends 10% of its GPD (gross domestic product) on healthcare.
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The percentage is 10%​
The whole is the Denmark's whole GDP
The verb is to spend.
The part is healthcare (the country also spends its GDP on things like education and security)
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The two simplest ways to write these four parts as a sentence are:
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1. % of whole verb part.
2. The percentage of whole which verb part is percentage.
3. Part verb % of whole
Note: In this sentence we have two verbs, our main verb and 'to be' before the percentage. Because of this, we add which after the whole.
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So, for our example:
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1. 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare.
Note: The government does the spending. As this isn't very important, i have used passive voice. We'll cover this in more depth in section 3
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2. The percentage of Denmark's GDP which is spent on healthcare is 10%.
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3. Healthcare spending is 10% of Denmark's GDP
5% one in twenty a twentieth
10% one in ten a tenth
20% one in five a fifth
25% one in four a quarter
33% one in three a third
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We can also add these together. For instance, 40% is 20% times 2. So this is two fifths or two in five.
Note: These are countable, so do no forget the 's'. a fifth = 1 fifth (no 's') or two fifths
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40% two in five two fifths
50% one in two. a half
60% three in five three fifths
75% three in four three quarters
There are almost 50,000,000 people living in Canada.
Around 30 million fewer people live in Canada than South Africa.
Other ways to give a percentage
One of main ways we will improve our score in IELTS is by using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, so let's look at how else we can give these percentages.
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10% can also be described as 'a tenth' or 'one in ten'.
If we divide 100 (one hundred percent) by 10 (10%) we get 10. There are 10 'tens' in 'one hundred'. One in ten or a 10th.
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For 20%, there are 5 '20%'s in 100%. So 20% = a fifth or one in five.
20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 100%
1 2 3 4 5
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For 5%, there are 20 '5%'s in 100%. So 5% = a twentieth or one in twenty.
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Note: We only use one in ____ for things we can count.
We can say "One in twenty people prefer fruit." as people are countable.
But we cannot say "One in twenty money was spend on fruit." as money is not countable.
Adverbs
The percentages you are given will not always be exact. This is where we can, and should use adverbs. Place this word before the amount:
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1. Adverb % of whole verb part.
2. The percentage of whole which verb part is adverb percentage.
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Under or Over
approximately
around
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Under the amount
just under
almost
nearly
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Over the amount
just over
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Even if it the exact number, we can still use an adverb to tell this to the reader.
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exactly
specifically
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Just over 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare.
Almost 5% of the USA's GDP is spent on its military.
Approximately 17% of the USA's GDP is spent on healthcare.
Comparing Percentages
Conjunctions
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Describe one percentage using the above structures, add a conjunction, write a comparison (from the previous lesson) and then add the percentage of the 2nd part.
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1. Just over 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare while Korea spends far less at only approximately 5%.
2. Although 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare, Korea spends far less at only approximately 5%.
Adverbial Phrases
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Describe one percentage using the above structures and finish the sentence with a period. Add an adverbial phrase followed by a comma and then write a comparison (from the previous lesson). Finally add the percentage of the 2nd part.
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1. Just over 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare. However, Korea spends far less at only approximately 5%.
2. Just over 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare. On the other hand, Korea spends far less at only approximately 5%.
at vs. with
In the above example, we added the second percentage to the sentence using the preposition 'at'. To do this, all four parts (1. The percentage + of 2. The whole 3. A verb 4. The divided part) need to be clear.
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1. Just over 10% of Denmark's GDP is spent on healthcare. However, Korea spends far less at only approximately 5%.
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If they are not clear, you can use 'with' followed by a full description of the percentage. However, you need to change the very into the ...ing form (present participle) of the verb
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2. ... with percentage + of the whole verbing the divided part
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Korea doesn't spend very much on its healthcare with approximately 5% of its GDP being spent on healthcare.