You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the population change between 1940 and 2000 in three different counties in the US state of Oregon. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
You should write at least 150 words.
Population (in thousands) in the state of Oregon by County, 1970-2000.
Sample Answer 1
The line graph shows how the population in three countries in the state of Oregon in the USA changed between 1940 and 2000. Overall, Washington had far higher population than Columbia and Yamhill, and the population growth between 1980 and 2000 was considerably higher.
In 1940, the population of Columbia was around 28 thousand, the lowest among the three counties in Oregon state. Yamhill had a population of 30 thousand while Washington had 75 thousand inhabitants, the highest among these counties.
By 1970, Yamhill’s population had increased by 50% while Columbia witnessed about 40% population increase during the last three decades. At that time, Washington’s population reached to nearly 125 thousand which was somewhat double than the population of Yamhill and Columbia together in this year.
Finally, in 2000, Columbia and Yamhill accommodated roughly 90 and 80 thousand citizens, a noticeable growth than that of the last three decades. In this year, Washington’s population reached to approximately 250 thousand, more than double than that of 1970’s.
Sample Answer 2
The graph shows the increase in the population of three counties, Columbia, Yamhill and Washington in the U.S. state of Oregon, between 1940 and 2000. In 1940, Columbia had the lowest population of the three counties, at around 25,000. This compared with about 30,000 in Yamhill and approximately 75,000 in Washington.
By 1970, Columbia’s population had risen to just under 36,000. Although this appears on the graph to be a gentle increase, it is in fact an increase of approximately 50%. Yamhill’s population also rose by nearly 50% between 1940 and 1970: from 30,000 to just under 45,000. However, the greatest real increase was in Washington, where the population in 1970 had increased by approximately 75,000, to 125,000.
The years 1970 to 2000 saw the populations of Columbia and Yamhill increase by approximately the same amounts that they had increased by the thirty years before. In 2000, Columbia’s population – at approximately 76,000 – was triple what it had been in 1940. Likewise, Yamhill’s population, at around 90,000, was almost triple what it was in 1940.
Although Washington’s increase in population between 1940 and 1970 was large, its increase in the following thirty years was even sharper, rising from about 125,000 in 1970 to more than 240,000 in 2000.