Band 9: The bar chart below shows the percentages of three groups of Australian children taking part in four kinds of activities in 2012. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart delineates the participation rates of children in four leisure activities across three age cohorts: 5-8, 9-11, and 12-16 years.

Overview Overall, Watching TV is the dominant activity across all groups, showing a positive correlation with age, whereas engagement in Art steadily declines as children mature. While Reading habits stabilize after the youngest years, Riding a bike exhibits a fluctuating trend, seeing a resurgence in popularity among teenagers.

Watching TV is nearly universal, rising from 91% in 5-8-year-olds to a peak of 99% in the 12-16 demographic. Similarly, Reading participation grows from 62% in the youngest group to 70% for 9-11-year-olds, where it notably plateaus, maintaining the exact same level for teenagers.

In contrast, Art is the only activity to witness a consistent drop, falling from 60% in the youngest cohort to a low of 48% among adolescents. Finally, Riding a bike displays a U-shaped trend; it dips from 78% to 63% in the middle years before recovering sharply to 82% among the oldest group.