📊 Graph: Number of shops closures and openings between 2011 and 2018
Rory breaks down a tricky line graph, revealing the one mistake most students make when describing trends. Can you spot the error in 'closures stabilised at around 5000 per year' before he does?
The graph below shows the number of shops that closed and the number of new shops that opened in one country between 2011 and 2018.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Intro: The line graph presents information on store closures and openings in a country from 2011 to 2018. The numbers are measured in thousands on the vertical axis, and the years are given on the horizontal axis.
Overall statement: Overall, fewer shops were both opening and closing at the end of the period compared to the beginning of the period, however, there were significant differences in the two trends in the intervening time. In general, the pattern was more erratic for opening throughout
P1: In greater detail, shop closures reached their highest point in 2013 at 7000, with a significant trough in 2015 at 500. This dip only lasted for that year though, and for the following 3 years, closures stabilised at around 5000 per year, around 1500 less FEWER than the starting point of 6500 in 2011.
P2: Conversely, shop openings consistently either dropped or stabilised aside from two relatively brief periods where they increased, significantly from 2012 to 2014, and with a minor uptick in 2016-17. Despite both of these, the period ended with shop openings at around a third of those at the start of it.