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The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing. Announcements
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ATUS News ReleasesCurrent
Percent of employed persons working at home on days worked nearly doubled in 202007/22/2021
The percent of employed persons working at home on days they worked nearly doubled,
rising to 42 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Average travel time,
such as commuting to work or driving to a store, decreased for all demographic groups.
In 2017-18, 16% of the U.S. population, or 40.4 million people, provide unpaid eldercare11/22/2019
Sixteen percent of the U.S. population provides eldercare--unpaid care for someone with
a condition related to aging--to others. On a given day, 26 percent of eldercare providers
engage in eldercare, spending an average of 3.4 hours in eldercare activities. Featured
About 1 in 4 workers occasionally work at home and more than half have flexible schedules09/24/2019
In 2017-18, 25 percent of wage and salary workers worked at home at least occasionally,
and 15 percent of wage and salary workers had days they only worked at home. Fifty-seven
percent of workers had a flexible schedule in which they could vary the times they began
and stopped working.
66% of wage and salary workers are able to take paid leave from their jobs in 2017-1808/29/2019
In 2017-18, 66 percent of wage and salary workers had access to paid leave at their jobs,
an increase from 2011. Seventy-eight percent of workers had access to unpaid leave. Archives
To receive e-mail announcements about the American Time Use Survey, please contact the ATUS staff.
ATUS TablesTablesNOTE The 2020 ATUS was greatly affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Data collection was suspended in 2020 from mid-March to mid-May for the safety of ATUS staff. Annual 2020 estimates cannot be produced due to the 2-month suspension in data collection, and thus ATUS tables were not updated with 2020 data. For more information, please see the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the 2020 ATUS page.
Civilian noninstitutional population age 15 and overNote: Historical estimates (from 2003 to the most recent year) for tables A-1 and A-2 are available through the ATUS Database.
Employed persons
Married parentsNote: Tables A-6 and A-7 are updated and expanded versions of the tables appearing in the May 8, 2008 news release on Married Parents' Use of Time. To access the 2003-06 versions of these tables, see the news release.
Additional tables are available in ATUS news releases. Unpublished tables of time-use estimates by age, ethnicity, employment status, educational attainment, marital status, presence and age of household children, and other categories are available upon request by e-mailing the ATUS staff. ATUS ChartsChartsNOTE These charts will not be updated for 2020 because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on American Time Use Survey data. For more information, please see the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the 2020 ATUS page. The following charts provide a snapshot of how people use their time. These lists are not exclusive—they only contain some of the most interesting or commonly cited statistics from the survey. Activities by sex and day
Activities by employment status
Activities by age
Working activities for employed persons
Household, caring, and leisure activities
ATUS Database
Database
Historical TablesMore Tools
ATUS Data FilesData FilesSingle-Year Data Files
How to use ATUS microdata files Data files do not contain time-use estimates. Time-use estimates are available from: ATUS Survey DocumentationSurvey Documentation
ATUS Frequently Asked QuestionsFrequently Asked Questions
Contact ATUS
Written inquiries may be directed to:
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Latest Numbers![]() AVERAGE HOURS PER DAY
Household activities:
Eating and drinking:
Leisure and sports:
Caring for and helping household children, parents:
Working, employed persons:
Working on days worked, employed persons: PERCENT PARTICIPATING ON AN AVERAGE DAY
Working, employed persons:
Participating in sports, exercise, and recreation: Estimates are annual averages for the civilian noninstitutional population age 15 and over unless noted. Activities refer to an individual's main activity. Other activities done simultaneously are not included. |