Starting your essay

The graph shows figures for…

This report describes…
As can be seen in the table/graph/pie chart,
According to the graph…
Spanning half a century from … to … is detailed in this report
The table shows the different ways in which …
As can be seen in the graph…
The graph and bar chart show the numbers of people who…
It shows the amount … and the total amount of …
The figures show that…
The (chart) gives information about sth in terms of the different levels
of/ reasons for/
Categorized by gender/employment status
Categorized according to

Talking about time/ periods

Over a period of (2 years)

During this 5year period
from…..to….
Between … and …

The first
During The following 10 years
In The next
Over The final

and subsequently
until
over this period
Since then + present perfect
Finally
And subsequently
After that
Then
And by 2000
… during the ’60s and ’70s
until the early/mid/late 1930s ….
In the meantime,
at which point there was a decline..
But following that there was a
During the following decade
Annually
Were first recorded

Increases and decreases

decrease substantially
have fallen significantly
decreased dramatically
There has been a gradual decrease
Have shot up from approximately … and topped
There is a dramatic fall..
Rise steadily
Remain stable
Drop significantly
They experienced a dramatic increase…
Have gradually fallen…
There were some fluctuations…
There was a marked increase in the numbers of …
And has remained stable/constant
Which had a downturn of about …
The greatest proportional rises can be seen in the …
Increased threefold/fourfold …
There was a significant increase to … (number)
There was a gradual rise until … with a peak in … followed by a steady
decline to just under …
Rose rapidly from … in …. to a plateau of around …in …between … and…
The number rose to …. Shot up to over …
Reaching a peak of … during the ’60s and ’70s but declined to around … in
…
Visits to UK where double the number of visits abroad by UK residents
the figure almost doubled to around …
There was a steady fall in (the number)
After this there was a slight but steady decrease
Rose only slightly .. reaching a plateau of around … from … to …
But following that saw a steady decline to around …
Experienced an upward/downward trend
Referring and Comparing

Whereas
In contrast to this
The second most favoured
The latter…
The trend for… is similar
The general trend is similar
They are between three and seven times more frequent…
The numbers of both kinds of … have risen, with … being the greater.
Apart from …
Except for…
Concerning the…
And by 2000 it was the second most popular when the figure almost
doubled to around …
….is the most popular…
…compared to…
In…. and in … the proportions are quite different.
In both theses cases about two thirds of
Experienced a rapid rise in the … reaching … and …, respectively by 2000.
… differs from the other … in that …
…is the greatest, followed by … with …
have shown different patterns

Tops and bottoms

… and topped at …
with a peak in …
They appear not to exist at all
Reaching a peak of
When it plunged
reach an all time low/high of
They reach a peak at…
when after hitting a peak of just under …
experienced a (similar) boom in
Are relatively few numbering a mere ( small number)

Stability
where/When it remained stable from … to …
When it reached a plateau of … during the ‘90s
appears to have remained fairly constant

Expressing reason

Due to
Because of
On account of

Generalizing

It seems that overall…

The average number..
1,2,3, all had high numbers/ percentages of
No other changes were recorded
All five
The five countries included are: …
In general, the total sth increased until …, at which point there was a
reduction in the … due to/ because of …
But the general trend was an increasing one.

Getting close to numbers

Approximately
Was just under/over…
In the region of …
of/to around …
at…
over three quarters/two thirds/ three fifths of …
was almost double the amount of
Are relatively few numbering a mere ( small number)

Others

Males and females both experienced an upward trend reaching 70 and 80

hours of work respectively.

Assumptions
It is obvious/it is clear /it is apparent that
We can assume/We can predict/we can project that