Band 8.5 model answer: opinion (agree or disagree)

A band 8.5 model answer to a real IELTS Writing Task 2 question, with the paragraph plan that fits it. Aim for 250 to 290 words in 40 minutes.

The question

In many countries, the number of people choosing to remain single or delay marriage has risen significantly in recent decades. What are the reasons for this trend, and what effects does it have on society?

Your 4-paragraph plan

Introduction (40-50 words). Paraphrase the statement and give your clear opinion in one sentence.
Body paragraph 1 (80-100 words). First reason you hold this view, with one specific example.
Body paragraph 2 (80-100 words). Second reason, or address the strongest point on the other side and explain why your view still holds.
Conclusion (40-50 words). Restate your opinion in fresh words and summarise your two reasons.

The trap in this question type

Examiners reward a clear position held from the first paragraph to the last. Do not sit on the fence, and do not switch sides halfway.

Band 8.5 model answer

324 words, the length a strong candidate produces in the 40 minutes Task 2 allows (the minimum is 250). Written for this exact question in the official format. Read it once for ideas, then write your own before comparing.

Across much of East Asia and Western Europe, the age at which people first marry has risen steadily in recent decades, and a growing minority now forgo marriage altogether. This shift stems from identifiable economic and cultural causes, and it is reshaping social structures in ways that carry both benefits and costs. The primary driver is economic insecurity combined with expanded opportunity, particularly for women. In cities such as Tokyo and Seoul, entry level salaries have stagnated relative to housing costs, making the traditional milestones of marriage and a family home financially daunting for people in their twenties. Seoul's city authority now runs a subsidised housing scheme aimed specifically at unmarried residents living alone, a tacit admission that single-person households are no longer a temporary phase but a lasting demographic category. Alongside this, women who once faced strong pressure to marry young now have access to university education and stable professional careers, so marriage is no longer the only route to financial security. The societal effects of this trend are equally substantial. Most visibly, countries with high rates of delayed marriage, including Italy and Japan, also report birth rates well below the replacement level needed to sustain population size, which over decades produces an ageing population and a shrinking workforce, straining pension systems that rely on younger contributors. A secondary effect concerns household formation: single occupant homes are now among the fastest growing categories in national censuses, prompting changes in housing design, urban planning, and even retail patterns, as businesses adapt to serve smaller consumption units rather than family groups. Together these shifts show that a private decision about marriage timing accumulates into a public, structural problem for policymakers. In conclusion, the retreat from early marriage reflects genuine economic pressures and expanded personal autonomy rather than a rejection of family life itself. Its consequences, however, are far reaching, demanding policy responses in pension reform and housing that most governments have yet to fully confront.

Why this answer earns band 8.5

The two body paragraphs are almost equal in length and each carries one controlling idea, which is what a two-part Task Response question requires; a weaker answer would spend six sentences on causes and a single rushed sentence on effects.
The linking phrase 'Alongside this' opens a new strand within the causes paragraph without starting a disconnected sentence, and 'A secondary effect concerns' performs the same job in the effects paragraph, showing a consistent Coherence and Cohesion pattern of signalling sub-points rather than just listing them.
The detail 'Seoul's city authority now runs a subsidised housing scheme' does real argumentative work because it shows an institution reacting to the trend, not just a generic person affected by it; a weaker script would only assert 'many young people cannot afford to marry' without any institutional evidence.
The phrase 'birth rates well below the replacement level' uses precise demographic terminology accurately in context, whereas a weaker script might vaguely write 'birth rates are very low', which carries less Lexical Resource credit and reads as imprecise.
The concession in the conclusion, 'rather than a rejection of family life itself', strengthens Task Response by showing nuanced judgement instead of the flatter, one-sided claim a weaker answer might make, such as simply asserting 'marriage is disappearing'.

The plan, reusable on any question of this type

Intro (35-45 words): paraphrase the trend, noting it spans decades and multiple regions, and state that both causes and effects will be covered (~52 words)
Body 1 (110-120 words): explain causes, giving one institutional or policy example and one attitudinal shift, with equal space to economic and cultural drivers (~111 words)
Body 2 (110-120 words): explain effects, covering one demographic consequence (replacement level, ageing) and one structural or social consequence (household formation), closing with a sentence linking the two (~116 words)
Conclusion (30-40 words): summarise causes and effects together, end with a forward-looking policy remark (~45 words)

Phrases worth learning

financially daunting	describe a cost that discourages a life decision like marriage or homeownership
replacement level	precise demographic term for essays on birth rates or population decline
household formation	academic collocation for essays discussing how people set up new homes or delay doing so
straining pension systems	link demographic change to economic consequence in essays on ageing populations
accumulates into a public, structural problem	argue that a private or individual choice has wider societal consequences in any two-part essay

This answer includes invented specific detail written to show how detail is used, not to be quoted as fact: Seoul's city authority subsidised housing scheme for unmarried residents. IELTS does not check facts, so this is about the texture, never the claim.