Ielts task 1, bar chart: women going into higher education

Question

TOPIC: The chart gives information on the percentage of women going into higher education in five countries for the years 1980 and 2015. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart illustrates the proportion of female school-leavers who went into higher education in five different nations in the years 1980 and 2015.

Overall, the percentages for the five countries all witnessed an increase. In addition, Australia's figure remained the highest whilst South Korea still registered the lowest proportion over the period shown.

According to the chart, the proportion of Australian women going on to studying after leaving school stayed unchanged, at about 58%. A similar number can be seen in the USA in 2015 after increasing by a quarter. In contrast, the percentage for South Korea was much lower compared to those of other nations. In the beginning, approximately 15% of South Korean female school-leavers went into higher education but it doubled in 2015, standing at 30%.

On the other hand, the UK's percentage rose from more than a third to about 55% from 1980 to 2015. Meanwhile, there was no significant change in the figure for France as it only experienced an increase of less than 5% to reach nearly 55% in 2015.