Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: How Americans spend their time
7 Figures: How Americans spend their time
Aug 5, 2026 9:52 PM

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. In 2018, 89 percent of full-time employed persons worked on an average pared with 31 percent on an average weekend day, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Full-time employed persons averaged 8.5 hours of work time on weekdays they worked, and 5.4 hours on weekend days they worked. Multiple jobholders were more likely to work on an average weekend day than were single jobholders—56 pared with 28 percent.

2. On the days they worked, employed men worked 34 minutes more than employed women. This difference partly reflects women’s greater likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked more per day than women—8.2 pared with 7.9 hours.

3. Among workers age 25 and over, those with an advanced degree were more likely to work at home than were persons with lower levels of educational attainment—42 percent of those with an advanced degree performed some work at home on days pared with 12 percent of those with a high school diploma and no college. Workers with an advanced degree also were more likely to work on an average day than were those with only a high school diploma—74 pared with 65 percent.

4. On an average day, 84 percent of women and 69 percent of men spent some time doing household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or household management. On the days they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on these activities, while men spent 2.0 hours. On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework—such as cleaning or pared with 49 percent of women. Forty-six percent of men did food preparation or pared with 69 percent of women. Men were slightly more likely to engage in lawn and garden care than were women—11 pared with 7 percent.

5. On an average day, nearly everyone age 15 and over (96 percent) engaged in some sort of leisure activity, such as watching TV, socializing, or exercising. Men spent 49 minutes per day more in these activities than did women (5.7 pared with 4.9 hours). On average, adults age 75 and over spent 7.8 hours engaged in leisure activities per day—more than any other age group; 25-to 44-year-olds spent a little over 4.0 hours engaged in leisure and sports activities per day—less than other age groups.

6. Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.8 hours per day), accounting for just over half of all leisure time, on average. Socializing municating, such as visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events, accounted for an average of 38 minutes per day, and was the next mon leisure activity after watching TV. Individuals spent about twice as much time socializing on weekend days (59 minutes) as on weekdays (29 minutes).

7. Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent an average of 2.1 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children. Adults living in households where the youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 17 spent less than half as much time providing primary childcare to household children—50 minutes per day. Primary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as providing physical care or reading to children.

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
Radio Free Acton: For The Life Of The World
The Brad Pitt of Acton. In this edition of Radio Free Acton, Paul Edwards goes behind the scenes at the premiere of For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, the new curriculum produced by the Acton Institute that examines God’s mission in the world and our place in it. Edwards looks at the curriculum itself, speaks with some of the folks who made it, and gauges audience reaction to the premiere. You can listen via the audio...
What Were the First Historical Documents to Examine Religious Freedom?
When was the concept of freedom of religion first mentioned by secular governments? Robert Louis Wilken, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and the author ofThe First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity,provides the answer: (Via: Justin Taylor) ...
Dear Future Mom: Children with Down Syndrome Are a Gift to Us All
“I’m expecting a baby,” writes a future mother. “I’ve discovered he has Down syndrome. I’m scared: what kind of life will my child have?” In response, CoorDown, an Italian organization that supports those with the disability, created the following video, answering the mother through the voices of 15 children with Down syndrome: “Your child can be happy,” they conclude, “and you’ll be happy, too.” Or, as Katrina Trinko summarizes: “Don’t be scared. Be excited.” That goes for the rest of...
To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice: A Challenge to ‘Good Intentions’
When decrying instances of do-gooder activism gone wrong, it’s e rather routine for critics to respond by saying,“good intentions aren’t enough” —and to a great extent, rightly so. Yet, as I’ve argued before, in addition to critiquing the es of our actions, we should also pause and ask whether our “good intentions” are all that good to begin with. If we are responding to some blurry impulse to “do something,” and that certain something ends up harming the very people...
Crooked and Proud: Edwin Edwards Returns to Louisiana Politics
Edwin Edwards once declared that the only thing that could keep him from Louisiana’s governor’s mansion was getting caught in bed with a “dead girl or a live boy.” He’s been called “The Luca Brasi of the Bayou,” “The Silver Zipper,” and “The Pirate Kingfish.” When Edwards ran against and trounced former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in the 1988 governor’s race, he had bumper stickers printed up that read, “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.” He then declared...
Samuel Gregg: Defending Paul Ryan
At National Review Online, Acton’s Director of Research, Sam Gregg, takes issue with a New York Times article that takes a “dim view” of Congressman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.). Specifically, Gregg takes on author Timothy Egan’s charge that Ryan suffers from “Irish-Amnesia” because the congressman suggests that we in the United States have created a culture of dependency. Such attitudes and critiques, the piece argued, reflected a type of ancestral amnesia on Ryan’s part. Egan reminds his readers that some English...
Catholics and Anglicans Join Forces Against Slavery
There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in human history, with anestimated 21 million in bondageacross the globe. In an effort to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking across the world by 2020, Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby have personally given their backing to the newly-formed Global Freedom Network. The Global...
It’s Official, Millennials: The White House Thinks You’re Stupid
The Affordable Care Act [ACA] has seen more than it’s share of disasters. The clunky website got off to a horrendous start, the “fixes” didn’t work, Kathleen Sebelius got raked over the coals (“Don’t do this to me!”) at a House hearing, and not enough young people are signing up. The solution? The White House has created an “ACA Bracket” (Get it? Huh? Get it?) site where young folks can go and vote for their favorite GIFs and then head...
Explainer: What’s Going On in Crimea?
Note: This is an updateand addition to two previous posts, “Explainer: What’s Going on in Ukraine?” and “What Just Happened with Russia and Ukraine?.” So what just happened in Crimea? On Sunday, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia. Today Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty making Crimea part of Russia (it was a former satellite state of the Soviet Union). Putin says he does not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine. Why would...
Video: Lawrence Reed on the Best and Worst American Presidents
Last week, Acton ed Lawrence Reed to the podium of the Mark Murray Auditorium for his Acton Lecture Series address, entitled American Presidents: The Best and the Worst. Reed, the President of the Foundation for Economic Education, tackled the subject with his usual grace and an evident (and praiseworthy) passion for the protection of the individual liberties of average citizens from the ever-expanding power of central government. Reed’s address is now available in full on YouTube, and is posted below....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved