Band 7+: WRITING TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The bar chart below shows current health expenditure totals as percentages of GDP* for various European countries for the years 2002, 2007 and 2012. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. You should write at least 150 words. * GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is the total value of goods that are made and services that are provided in a country.

The bar chart displays multiple European countries’ ongoing spending totals on health as percentages of GDP across three periods of time in a decade. Overall, Switzerland put the highest percentage of expenditures compared to other countries and most of the countries had an increased in expenditure in 2012.

Switzerland offers the largest health expenditures, estimated to be around 10 to 12 percent of their total GDP. Belgium comes in second place by devoting approximately 10 percent of their GDP. Finally, Estonia with the smallest amount of investment portion at just over 2 percent of their accumulated GDP.

There are three major patterns of spending across these 13 Europian nations. Most of the countries like, Denmark, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia had a sudden increase in health expenditures percentage in 2012 whereas countries such as Belgium, Estonia, Spain and Switzerland had a constant amount of health investments portion over the years. The third pattern was a drop in health expenditures percentage experienced by countries like Luxembourg and the Netherlands.