Band 8+: The table below gives information about the amount of tax collected ( as % of GDP) in five countries for 4 years between 1975 and 2005. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

The given table illustrates the amount of tax collected, measured as a percentage of GPD, across 5 countries in 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2005.

Overall, Sweden remained in the top position/retained the top spot throughout the surveyed period. While most countries showed considerable increases despite some fluctuations, the USA displayed a rather moderate performance.

Regarding the leading countries, the figure stood at 46%, which was much greater than other countries in 1975. In the following 3 decades, this number registered a mild increase to 51% in 1995 before experiencing a dramatic surge to 70.1% by the final year surveyed, which was roughly threefold higher than all other counterparts in the same period.

Conversely, the figure for the USA grew slightly from 25.1% to 27.4% between 1975 and 2005, respectively. Meanwhile, although the figure for Korea experienced a substantial rise in the first decade from 15.1% to 27%, this number continued to hover around 26% and 27.3% for the remainder of the period. Concerning the other two countries, despite sharing a similar pattern, the figure for Japan rose to 32.1% in 2005, which was greater than Turkey by about 5%.