Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: American Time Use Survey
7 Figures: American Time Use Survey
Mar 28, 2026 10:59 AM

Every year the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.

Here are seven figures you should know from the latest report:

1. On the days they worked, employed men worked 53 minutes more than employed women. This difference partly reflects women’s greater likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers, men worked longer than women–8.3 pared with 7.7 hours.

2. On an average day, 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men spent some time doing household activities such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management. On the days they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.1 hours.

3. Individuals age 75 and over averaged 1.0 hour of reading for personal interest per weekend day and 20 minutes playing games or using puter for leisure. Conversely, individuals ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 4 minutes per weekend day and spent 52 minutes playing games or using puter for leisure.

4. Employed adults living in households with no children under age 18 engaged in leisure activities for 4.5 hours per day, about an hour more than employed adults living with a child under age 6.

5. Men were more likely than women to participate in sports, exercise, or recreation on any given day–21 pared with 16 percent. On the days that they participated, men also spent more time in these activities than did women–1.9 pared with 1.3 hours.

6. Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.8 hours per day), accounting for more than half of leisure time, on average, for those age 15 and over. Socializing, such as visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events, was the next mon leisure activity, accounting for 43 minutes per day.

7. The average person spend 8.74 hours a day sleeping (8.65 for men; 8.82 for women).

Other posts in this series:

The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the U.S.

Inmate Sexual Victimization by Correctional Authorities

Tax Day Edition

Wages and Employment in America

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Why is health insurance so complicated?
Car insurance and life insurance are rather simple. So why is health insurance plicated? And why can’t it be more like other forms of insurance? Lanhee Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, explains what make health insurance so different—and plex. ...
From mendicants to merchants: The monastic embrace of enterprise
“If a man does not work, neither shall he eat,” wrote the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. But what if your vocation demands that you own nothing and spend much of your time in contemplation of ethereal mysteries? In time, even religious orders intended to live as mendicants (beggars) allowed some system of ownership. Occasionally, without any profit motive, monasteries acquired not insignificant fortunes. Some also engaged in enterprise – offering products they created on the open market. “In...
How do Western nations rank on economic freedom?
The Fraser Institute released its annual “Economic Freedom of the World” report this morning. The free market think tank rates every nation based on its “degree of freedom in five broad areas”: Area 1:Size of Government—As spending and taxation by government, and the size of government-controlled enterprises increase, government decision-making is substituted for individual choice and economic freedom is reduced.Area 2:Legal System and Property Rights—Protection of persons and their rightfully acquired property is a central element of both economic freedom...
Explainer: What you should know about Trump’s tax reform framework
Later today in a speech in Indiana, President Trump will outline his tax reform framework. Here’s what you should know about the president’s plan: What are the goals of the tax reform framework? Trump’s tax plan has four stated goals: 1. Make the tax code simple, fair and easy to understand. 2. Give American workers a pay raise by allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. 3. Make America the jobs magnet of the world by leveling the...
The cultural connection between economics and belief
Is there a connection between economics and belief? In a recent Karam Forum lecture for the Oikonomia Network, theologian Jay Moon uses a Perplexus ball to explain the overlapping influence and impact of distinct cultural spheres — what anthropologists call the “functional integration of culture.” According to anthropologist Darrell Whiteman, every culture can be understood as having three interconnecting sectors: (1) an economics and technology sector, (2) a social relationships sector, and (3) an ideology and belief sector. “These sectors...
Radio Free Acton: Paul Kengor on Reagan and Pope John Paul II; Upstream on It and Mother!
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Caroline Roberts talks with Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College about his new book on the extraordinary relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks with James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, about the recent horror films It and Mother!. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read...
Watch live: Mollie Hemingway on the media’s crisis of credibility
Can’t make to Grand Rapids for Mollie Hemingway’s talk today on the media? No problem. We’re streaming it online live starting around noon. The talk will also be shown live on Acton’s Facebook page. More on the event and the speaker: Trust in media institutions is at a historic low. Much of the country is overtly hostile to “fake news.” The media is desperate to recover its authority, even as it has e more biased, less substantive, and less civil...
How protectionism is hindering Puerto Rico relief efforts
A week after being devastated by Hurricane Maria, the citizens of Puerto Rico are as CNN points out, “suffering in primitive conditions without power, water or enough fuel.” Unfortunately, the recovery efforts are being impeded further by a nearly 100-year-old crony capitalist law. Crony capitalism or cronyism is a general term for the range of activities in which particular individuals or businesses in a market economy receive government-granted privileges over their customers petitors. One of the mon—and nefarious—types of cronyism...
Freedom and responsibility can turn back the tide of populism
“Today, populism is a global plague.” However, a thought-leader who played a pivotal role in weakening populism in Europe has shared the antidote in a speech to theEuropean Liberty Forumin Budapest. Zoltán Kész, a founder of theFree Market Foundationin Hungary, who was elected to parliament in 2015, gave one of the keynote addresses of the two-day forum, organized by the Atlas Network, last Thursday. In addition to leading a think tank dedicated to liberty, Kész was elected as an independent...
Pope, Patriarch need theology of civilization
Today at Public Orthodoxy, I examine the recent claim of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew that The human environment and the natural environment are deteriorating together, and this deterioration of the planet weighs upon the most vulnerable of its people. The impact of climate change affects, first and foremost, those who live in poverty in every corner of the globe. This is true so far as it goes, but something is missing: “the developing world, as the term indicates,...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved