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American Time Use Survey
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ATUS ATUS Program Links

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

  • The ATUS website is undergoing a redesign which will include improved navigation and more dynamic pages. A crosswalk of renamed and relocated webpage is available (XLSX). Please use it to update any bookmarks or links that you might have. If you encounter issues with any of the webpages, please contact us by email or over the phone: 202-691-6339.

  • More tools for accessing historic time-use estimates for over 100 activities by sex and day of week, age group, employment status, and for parents. For more information, see the ATUS Database page.

On This Page

ATUS News Releases

Current

On days they work, 38% of employed persons do some work at home in 2021

06/23/2022

In 2021, 38 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home on days they worked, and 68 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at their workplace.
HTML | PDF | RSS | Charts

In 2017-18, 16% of the U.S. population, or 40.4 million people, provide unpaid eldercare

11/22/2019

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.
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Featured

About 1 in 4 workers occasionally work at home and more than half have flexible schedules

09/24/2019

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.
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66% of wage and salary workers are able to take paid leave from their jobs in 2017-18

08/29/2019

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.
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Archives

To receive e-mail announcements about the American Time Use Survey, please contact the ATUS staff.

 

ATUS Tables

Tables

NOTE 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 over

Note: Historical estimates (from 2003 to the most recent year) for tables A-1 and A-2 are available through the ATUS Database.

Employed persons

  • Table A-4. Percent of employed persons working on their main job on days they worked, by occupation and hour of day,
    2015-19 (HTML) (PDF) 2013-17 (HTML) (PDF) 2011-15 (HTML) (PDF) 2011-12 (HTML) (PDF) 2005-09 (HTML) (PDF) 2003-07 (HTML) (PDF)
  • Table A-5. Percent of employed persons working on their main job on days they worked, by industry and hour of day,
    2015-19 (HTML) (PDF) 2013-17 (HTML) (PDF) 2011-15 (HTML) (PDF) 2009-13 (HTML) (PDF) 2007-11 (HTML) (PDF) 2005-09 (HTML) (PDF) 2003-07 (HTML) (PDF)

Married parents

Note: 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.

  • Table A-6. Time spent in primary activities and the percent of married mothers and fathers who did the activities on an average day by employment status and age of youngest own household child, average for the combined years,
    2015-19 (HTML) (PDF) 2013-17(HTML) (PDF) 2011-15 (HTML) (PDF) (XLSX) 2009-13 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS) 2007-11 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS) 2005-09 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS)
  • Table A-7. Time spent in primary activities by married mothers and fathers with own household children under 18 by employment status of self and spouse and age of youngest child, average for the combined years,
    2015-19 (HTML) (PDF) 2013-17 (HTML) (PDF) 2011-15 (HTML) (PDF) (XLSX) 2009-13 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS) 2007-11 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS) 2005-09 (HTML) (PDF) (XLS)

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 Charts

Charts

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

  • NOTE 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 the ATUS Database was not updated with 2020 data. For more information, please see the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the 2020 ATUS page.

  • Instructions for Extracting Data Series�Quick, easy instructions on how to extract American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data series.

Database

Database Name Special
Notice		 Top
Picks		 Data
Finder		 One
Screen		 Multi-
Screen		 Tables Text Files
American Time Use Survey (ATUS)
   Top Picks Data Finder for ATUS One Screen Data Search for American Time Use Survey

 

 Tables Text Files

 

Historical Tables

Table Name Tables
American Time Use Survey (ATUS) Historical News Release Tables
American Time Use Survey (ATUS) Results Tables
Historical 'A-1' Tables
Time spent in detailed primary activities, and percent of the civilian population engaging in each activity, averages per day Tables
Historical 'A-2' Tables
Time spent in detailed primary activities, and percent of the civilian population engaging in each activity, averages per day on weekdays and weekend days Tables

More Tools

  • Series Report — Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
  • Series ID Spreadsheets: A Tables — Spreadsheets with series IDs corresponding to estimates published on tables A-1 and A-2, which provide time-use estimates for over 100 activities by sex and day of week. Series IDs are available by age, employment status, and parental status.

ATUS Data Files

Data Files

Single-Year Data Files Multi-Year Data Files Module Data Files

How to use ATUS microdata files

Survey Documentation

Data files do not contain time-use estimates. Time-use estimates are available from:

ATUS Survey Documentation

Survey Documentation

 

ATUS Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is a time-use survey?
  2. When did the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) begin?
  3. Who conducts the ATUS?
  4. Who is asked to respond to the ATUS?
  5. I was asked to participate in the ATUS. Where can I find more information about participating in the survey?
  6. Who uses the information from the ATUS?
  7. How often are ATUS data published?

All ATUS FAQs »

 

Contact ATUS

  • Email: ATUS staff
  • Telephone number: (202) 691-6339

    • Written inquiries may be directed to:
    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
    American Time Use Survey
    2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
    Suite 4675
    Washington, DC 20212-0001

     

    Latest Numbers

    RSS

    AVERAGE HOURS PER DAYNews Release

    Household activities:
    1.95 in 2021 Historical Data

    Eating and drinking:
    1.19 in 2021 Historical Data

    Leisure and sports:
    5.27 in 2021 Historical Data

    Sleeping:
    8.95 in 2021 Historical Data

    Caring for and helping household children, parents:
    1.43 in 2021 Historical Data

    Working, employed persons:
    5.25 in 2021 Historical Data

    Working on days worked, employed persons:
    7.75 in 2021 Historical Data

    PERCENT PARTICIPATING ON AN AVERAGE DAY

    Working, employed persons:
    67.8 in 2021 Historical Data

    Participating in sports, exercise, and recreation:
    21.5 in 2021 Historical Data

    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.