Tables: visitors to five attractions
You can pick out the main features of a table, group its rows, and write an overview that needs no numbers.
In a table, every figure looks the same, so nothing stands out by itself. Before you write, you do the work a chart would do for you, and find the figures that matter.
The band descriptors explain why that work matters. At band 7, the data are appropriately categorised. At band 5, a report may stick to details and lose the bigger picture, and a table makes that very easy to do.
This one shows visitors to five attractions in one city, in two different years.
Warm-up
Read the units
Before the numbers, read the headings. This table's title ends with (thousands).
One cell in the table says 520. How many visitors is that?
How it works
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table below shows the number of visitors to five attractions in one city in 2015 and 2025.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Attraction | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Science centre | 520 | 610 |
| History museum | 410 | 385 |
| Castle | 280 | 275 |
| Modern art gallery | 150 | 320 |
| Heritage village | 95 | 60 |
Write at least 150 words.
How to read a table
- 1Read the headings and the units
Check what is counted, where, when, and in what units. Here it is visitors, in thousands, at five attractions, in 2015 and 2025.
- 2Find the highest and the lowest
Look for the biggest and smallest figure in each column. If the same row is top or bottom in both years, that is an overview point.
- 3Work out each change
Rough figures are enough: up 90, down 25. The biggest change is often your second overview point.
- 4Group the rows
Put rows that behaved alike together: here, the attractions that gained visitors and the ones that lost them. This is what the descriptors mean by categorising the data.
- 5Write the overview, then the groups
The overview comes straight after the introduction and has no numbers. Then give each group a paragraph, with figures that compare.
Listing and comparing
The science centre had 520,000 visitors in 2015 and 610,000 in 2025. The history museum had 410,000 visitors in 2015 and 385,000 in 2025. Every row gets the same sentence, and nothing is compared.
Only two attractions gained visitors. The science centre rose by 90,000, while the art gallery more than doubled. Rows that behaved alike are put together, and their figures are compared.
The report, paragraph by paragraph
The parts, in order
One sentence on what the table shows, in your own words.
The top attraction and the main changes, with no numbers.
Their figures, compared with each other and across the two years.
The same, in an order the reader can follow: here, from the most visited to the least.
Watch me do one
First the headings: visitors, in thousands, at five attractions, in 2015 and 2025. So 520 means 520,000 people.
Then the extremes. The science centre has the biggest figure in both columns, and the heritage village the smallest in both. That is one overview point already.
Now the changes, roughly, in my head: science centre up 90, history museum down 25, castle down 5, art gallery up 170, heritage village down 35.
The art gallery's rise is the biggest change by far. It went from fourth place to third.
So there are two groups: two attractions gained visitors and three lost them. Those are my two detail paragraphs.
My overview has no numbers: The science centre was the most visited attraction in both years, and the art gallery grew fastest, while the other three lost visitors.
A model answer
The table shows how many people visited five cultural attractions in one city in 2015 and 2025. Overall, the science centre was the most visited attraction in both years. It was one of only two places that gained visitors over the period, along with the modern art gallery, which grew fastest. The other three attracted fewer people in 2025 than in 2015. The science centre welcomed 520,000 visitors in 2015, and this figure rose by 90,000 to 610,000 ten years later. The art gallery, which had the second-lowest total in 2015 at 150,000, more than doubled its visitor numbers to 320,000, and moved ahead of the castle. Of the three attractions that lost visitors, the history museum remained the second most popular, although its total fell from 410,000 to 385,000. Numbers at the castle were almost unchanged, at 280,000 in 2015 and 275,000 in 2025. The heritage village was the least visited place in both years, and it also saw the sharpest fall, from 95,000 to 60,000, a drop of more than a third.
- TaskThe overview opens with the biggest feature of the table, and gives no numbers.
- GrammarA relative clause, as in this unit's language lesson, adds a second overview point without a new sentence.
- CoherenceThe paragraph names its group first, so the reader knows why these rows sit together.
- TaskA small change gets a short sentence, with both figures to show how small it is.
- VocabularyA fraction gives the size of the fall in a few words.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Four questions on this table, then an introduction and an overview of your own.
Find the overview
Only one of these sentences gives the big picture of the table. Pick it.
Which sentence is an overview?
A fraction
Complete the sentence with one word. Use the biggest fraction that is still true.
Visits to the heritage village fell from 95,000 to 60,000, a drop of more than a .
Write no more than 1 word.
A units mistake
Three of these sentences describe the table correctly. Choose the one that gets a figure wrong.
Which sentence contains the error?
Changing places
Rankings can change even when the top stays the same. Compare the two columns.
Which of these happened between 2015 and 2025?
An introduction in your words
Write the first sentence of the report: the same information as the task sentence, in your own words.
The table below shows the number of visitors to five attractions in one city in 2015 and 2025.
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
A new table, one overview
A new table, given in words this time. Write an overview for it in two sentences, leaving every figure out.
A table shows the percentage of adults in one country who did three things in the past year, by age group. Visited a museum: 18-34, 28%; 35-54, 35%; 55 and over, 41%. Went to a live concert: 52%, 38%, 22%. Went to a festival: 47%, 30%, 15%. Write the overview.
0 / 25 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
Make people want to come. The science centre attracted 610,000 visitors in 2025.
Having more visitors than any other. The science centre was the most visited attraction in both years.
Get more of something. Only two of the five attractions gained visitors.
Stay the same, or stay in the same position. The history museum remained the second most popular attraction.
The biggest drop. The heritage village saw the sharpest fall.
One of three equal parts of something. Visits to the village fell by more than a third.
Before you go
Read the headings and the units first, and write every figure in those units.
Before you write, find the highest and lowest figures and the biggest change.
Group the rows that behaved alike, and give each group its own paragraph.
Put an overview with no numbers straight after the introduction.
Next: Unit 8 ends here. Unit 9 is about the media, and its first lesson is on formal English: register, which means how formal to sound, and polite forms.