The charts below give information about children under 18learjing musical instruments in one region of the UK in 1996 and 2016.

The pie charts show information about the proportion of

children

learning to play a musical

instrument

in the years 1996 and 2016,

while

the accompanying bar chart demonstrates

children

's choice of musical

instruments

in the same years. More than half of the

children

surveyed (56%) were not involved in learning to play a musical

instrument

in 1996.

This

figure,

however

, had more than halved by 2016 thanks to a growing interest in

this

activity, with the percentage of those attending music lessons accounting for a hefty 76% of the total. As far as the

instrument

choice is concerned, in four out of seven categories, the proportions declined. Piano, being opted for by the largest percentage of

children

in 1996, at 30%, saw a 5% decline after two decades.

While

the figures for violin and acoustic guitar categories fell by around 4% to just under 15 and around 2 per cent, the 'other'

instruments

' decrease in percentage was minimal: only by 1% to reach roughly 2.5%. The remaining

instruments

in question,

by contrast

, showed different patterns of change. Keyboard, after an 8% growth, reached dominance in 2016 with 30%. Electric guitar was another category with a rise from about 13% to virtually 17%, but the proportion of

children

playing at least 1

instrument

remained constant, at more or less 12%.

Overall

, the pie charts make it clear that the interest in learning how to play a musical

instrument

grew substantially over the period, with the overwhelming majority of

children

being engaged in

this

in 2016. As regards the bar chart, piano and keyboard were the most popular

instruments

in 1996 and 2016 respectively,

in contrast

to 'other'

instruments

and the acoustic guitar.