IELTS Pie Chart Exercises
This exercise will help you to become aware of fractions that you can use to express different proportions of the pie chart. You want to show the IELTS examiner that you know different ways to express data that you see within the pie charts.
For example:
74% ➡️ Almost three-quarters
82% ➡️ Just over four-fifths
Have a look at the pie chart/example below and then practice the exercises to become more confident.
Example of how to use a mix of fractions and percentages when describing the main data.
In 2003, the travel sector, which had the highest proportion of online sales, stood at 36%, but then experiened a slight decline to 29% in 2013. At just under one quarter of overall sales, the clothes sector was the second most popular category in 2003 although by 2013 it had fallen to 16% making it the lowest overall online seller in that year. Online sales within the sector of film/music accounted for slightly over one-fifth of sales in 2003, but then experienced a significant jump ten years later to 33%, which made it the largest selling sector out of all four sectors in 2013.
Lastly, the category of books had the least proportion of online sales in 2003 at 19%. Even though this sector only grew by 3% over a decade, it experienced an increase unlike the clothing and travel sectors which showed a decline over this period of time.
Exercises
Choose the correct answer that matches the data on the pie chart.
1.
one-fifth / almost a quarter
✅ almost one quarter (24%)
2.
nearly half / two-fifths
✅ nearly half (49%)
3.
three quarters / four-fifths
✅ four-fifths (80%)
4.
approximately a quarter / a third
✅ approximately a quarter (24%)
5.
just under two-fifths / almost half
✅ just under two-fifths (38%)
6.
two-fifths / just under a third
✅ just under a third (32%)
7.
appoximately half / three-fifths
✅ three-fifths (60%)
8.
nearly two-thirds / three quarters
✅ nearly two-thirds (58%)
9.
a quarter / less than a quarter
✅ less than a quarter (23%)
10.
just over one-fifth / a quarter
✅ just over one-fifth (21%)
11.
a third / nearly a third
✅ nearly a third (32%)
12.
just below four-fifths / just over four-fifths
✅ just below four-fifths (79%)
13.
almost half / two-thirds
✅ almost half (48%)
14.
about three-quarters / exactly three-quarters
✅ exactly three-quarters (75%)
15.
a fifth / a tenth
✅ a tenth (10%)
16.
a third / more than a quarter
✅ more than a quarter (27%)
17.
more than a fifth / over a quarter
✅ more than a fifth (22%)
18.
over four-fifths / exactly four-fifths
✅ exactly four-fifths (80%)
19.
two-thirds / slightly under half
✅ slightly under half (49%)
20.
more than a third / almost half
✅ more than a third (34%)
💡 Remember the hyphen (-) when expressing fractions:
two–fifths/one–third
