At the Present Time the Population of Some Countries

Lilie King
Written by Lilie

7.5 in Academic Writing

May 13, 2021

At the present time, the population of some countries includes a relatively large number of young adults, compared with the number of older people. Do the advantages of this situation outweigh the disadvantages?

This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 12 Test 6 Writing Task 2.

Sample Essay

Today, in some countries, young adults account for a comparatively large proportion of the population compared with older people. I believe the upsides of this situation far outweigh its downsides because young people are the main drivers of economic growth.

One disadvantage of having large numbers of young people may be that it can lead to high unemployment among them. Most older people already have their careers figured out. They either have stable corporate jobs or run their own businesses. In comparison, many young adults, especially those who just graduated from university, are still looking for jobs. When there are too many of them competing for the same positions, their chances of securing one can be very low. However, I do not think this is a major disadvantage for young people as long as they make the leap to self-employment.

On the positive side, young people are the driving force of an economy. This is because they tend to be more productive and creative than older people and thus are more likely to bring change and innovation to their countries. Take for example the highly innovative trillion-dollar U.S. tech industry. Most employees in this industry are only in their late 20s. I think this creates a great advantage for a country because a strong economy offers people high standards of living.

In conclusion, although large numbers of young adults can mean high jobless rates among them, I believe this disadvantage is greatly outweighed by the advantage that they can drive an economy to grow. (251 Words)

Essay Structure

Introduction Paragraph
  • Paraphrase the question statement (For this question, If you use something like “account for” or “make up”, you can easily come up with a construction that is different from the original.)
  • State your opinion and summarize your reason:  I believe the upside of this phenomenon far outweighs its downside because…
Body Paragraph 1
  • Summarize the main disadvantage
  • Explain the disadvantage
  • Give an example (you don’t need to write an example for each of the body paragraphs. It’s completely fine to write an example for only one body paragraph.)
  • Explain why you think this isn’t a major disadvantage (See the red part in the second paragraph.)
Body Paragraph 2
  • Summarize the main advantage (This should be the same as the advantage you summarised in your introduction paragraph.)
  • Explain the advantage
  • Give an example
  • Explain why you think this is a great advantage (See the red part in the third paragraph.)
Conclusion Paragraph
  • State your opinion and summarize the advantage and disadvantage again.
Click here to learn how to answer “what are the advantages and disadvantages of this phenomenon”.

17 CommentsLeave A Comment

  1. Someone told me that if a question needs advantages and disadvantages or problems and solutions then I need to write double-idea paragraphs to meet the task achievement, is it true or it’s not a must? Thanks a lot Lillie, much love from Uganda. I have one month to prepare for my test so I will be grateful for your feedback.

    1. Yes, it’s true but this essay question is not ‘advantages and disadvantages’ but ‘advantages outweigh disadvantages’. For an ‘outweigh’ question, simple write one main idea in each paragraph.

  2. Hi Lilie, can you explain to me what you meant by “as long as they leap to self employment” It is at the main BP1 end.

  3. sorry ms, but I have a question if type of question advantage outweighs disadvantage including “to what extent”, do i need to write an extra sentence to present the idea why this upside/downside is important similar to this sample?

  4. hello, lily. i want to ask, Is it possible to get band 7 if i only write around 250 to 320 words for essays such as this ? thank you. please reply soon.

  5. Hi . I have some feedbacks for you:improve your vocabulary and you should show how advantages outweigh disadvantages. In second paragraph you should write 2 or more advantages .By this way you’ll show that there are more advantages.)

    1. Hi, please google the definition of “outweigh”. Outweigh ≠ more than.
      Also, what do you mean by “improve your vocabulary”? Do you think we need to use a lot of “big” words to get a high score?

  6. There are some rare circumstances that the percentage of young excel the elders in some nations. While some may deem that the benefits of this condition are poor, I personally believe that the merits of it surpass its drawbacks.

    On the one hand, some scholars insist that the outnumber of young generations may bring severe competition to the society and result in a poor employment ambiance. A trendy word in China today is called “involution” – Meaning people need to work harder and harder to get a job or work done, which they initially do not have to put in much effort like now they do because they are in fierce competition for a better career prospect. This is happening in many places and corners around the world, especially in developing nations, where employees have to apply themselves to strive so that they can have a better quality of life.

    Conversely, the argument mentioned in the second paragraph is not tenable, and I still hold that there are many reasons to support the opinion that more youngsters than old people is a beneficial situation. To begin with, I claim that intensive competition is not the problem of population alone, but many other cardinal factors to blame. The most important one we should draw attention to is that the job opportunity is not enough in the first place in some underdeveloping countries and underprivileged towns. Many people cannot find a decent job is because there is not any job that exists at all. As for the benefits, the most obvious one is t less money is being put into taking care of elders, thus it can relieve the burden for the governments. This is not hard to understand, because we can imagine a country with numerous aged people will suffer from financial and medical problems for that the oldsters are usual guests to hospitals (they have a higher chance to contract to diseases). Governments often need to subsidize the old for medical purposes and pay the pension fee in support of the aged people’s retired life. Hence, only nations with abundant young blood will they strive and burgeon for they do not have the burdens to take care of many old.

    In conclusion, although some may reckon that the number of old people outnumbers the young is a welcome situation, I firmly hold that the opposite’s advantages beat the drawbacks.

  7. In the modern era, in a number of nations the number of youths are significantly higher than senior citizens. I am convinced that benefits of new innovations created by youths far outweighs the disadvantages.

    On the one hand, problems may arise when proportion of particular society consists of younger generations. The one potentially critic issue of having more young individuals is probably lacking of experience. In other words, when difficulties arise in workplaces they do not know how to tackle problems which may bring about negative outcomes later. For example, employers tend to recruit experienced adult rather than inexperienced young person who could be adverse for their goals. Consequently, this can lead to high unemployment among those who just graduated from University.

    On the other hand, despite the drawbacks above, I consider having more young people in country is beneficial because of possible innovations and advancements they may bring. That is the young adults are more productive, creative and have much more innovative idea which can change world completely. For instance, Facebook was discovered by a twenty-year-old student at Oxford University. He was trying to experiment with infrared prior to the idea of connecting people, in the same way, struck his mind.numerous cutting-edge companies have been creating by younger citizens.  Therefore, more youngsters mean more innovative ideas.

    In conclusion, although large numbers of young adults can lead to unemployment rates among them, I believe this disadvantage is outweighed by the advantage that they can benefit society more.

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