Socializing, work and family care in the 2019 American Time Use Survey

The many forms of time together

Almost everyone age 15 and older, 95 percent, took part in some leisure activity on an average day. Leisure and sports occupied about five hours and eleven minutes altogether. Television accounted for 2.8 hours, just over half that total. Socializing and communicating came next, at 38 minutes. The remaining time included activities such as exercise, reading, games and listening to music.

That 38-minute figure describes a particular kind of activity, including face-to-face conversation and attending or hosting social occasions. It is an average across the population, including days when people recorded none of those activities. It is not a daily amount everyone spent with other people.

The participation figures make that average more concrete. About 35 percent recorded socializing on their diary day. Among those who did, it occupied about an hour and fifty minutes. A population average of 38 minutes can therefore coexist with substantially longer occasions on the days they happen. It is neither a description of every person’s routine nor a target for a satisfying social life.

Shared time appears elsewhere in the report too. Time spent eating is recorded under eating and drinking, including meals shared with others. Reading with a child belongs under childcare. Phone calls, texts and video calls have a separate category. Television and games may be enjoyed alone or with company. These distinctions let us recognize a wider range of occasions for connection than the socializing total captures. A meal and a game can be part of a relationship even when neither appears in the total for socializing.

Socializing within different lives

The amount of leisure varied considerably across age groups. Adults aged 75 and older averaged 7.7 hours a day, compared with four hours among those aged 35 to 44. The national average brought together quite different ways of spending a day. A closer comparison within the report shows why it helps to look at what people actually did with that time.

Among employed adults, those living with a child under six averaged about three and a half hours of leisure a day. Those with no children under 18 at home averaged four and a half hours. Yet the estimates for socializing were much closer, about 38 minutes and 35 minutes respectively. A substantial part of the leisure difference was in television viewing, about one hour and 44 minutes for the first group and two hours and 23 minutes for the second.

The smaller leisure total did not correspond to a similar shortfall in recorded socializing. The figures describe how activities were distributed across these groups, rather than showing what having a child caused. They give us a more specific picture of family life than the leisure gap alone. Knowing how much leisure someone has and knowing what kind of visit would fit their day are distinct pieces of understanding. A friendship can include time with children present as well as occasions when adults arrange to see one another on their own.

Finding a shared rhythm

Socializing followed a clear weekly rhythm. People averaged 29 minutes on weekdays and 58 minutes on weekends and holidays. That concentration of social activity sat alongside a substantial change in working patterns. Among full-time workers, 87 percent worked on an average weekday, compared with 34 percent on a weekend day or holiday. For much of the population, the weekend brought a different balance between paid work and social occasions.

The weekend difference included both more people taking part and longer occasions among those who did. About 40 percent recorded socializing on a weekend or holiday, compared with 33 percent on a weekday. Among participants, the averages were roughly two hours and twenty-six minutes and an hour and thirty-one minutes. The weekly rhythm involved the frequency of occasions as well as their length.

There was also considerable variation within that pattern. People with more than one job were much more likely to work on a weekend day or holiday than people with one job, 58 percent compared with 31 percent. A Saturday therefore occupied a different place in different working lives.

For friends or a group planning to meet regularly, the useful detail is when their own schedules overlap. A weekend gathering may fit that shared rhythm well. Where working days differ, a weekday meeting or a choice of times may make participation easier. The national pattern helps explain the familiar appeal of a weekend invitation, while the variation gives a reason to build a gathering around the people who want to come.

Sharing the work of everyday life

The survey also makes visible the work that keeps a household going. On an average day, 85 percent of women and 71 percent of men did household activities, including cooking, cleaning, lawn care and household management. Among those who did these activities, women spent an average of two and a half hours and men just under two hours. Women also had less leisure overall, 4.9 hours a day compared with 5.5 hours for men.

These figures describe patterns across the population, rather than how any particular couple divided its work. They nevertheless identify something concrete to consider when people living together want time for company or leisure. Preparing a meal, clearing up afterward and keeping the household running all occupy part of the day. Arranging those tasks together can include considering each person's time to enjoy themselves, as well as getting the work done.

The report contains evidence that participation in household tasks can change. Between 2003 and 2019, the proportion of men doing food preparation and cleanup on an average day rose from 35 to 48 percent. Women's participation rose from 66 to 70 percent. More men were taking part, while women remained more likely to do so.

For a household, sharing this work can take more than one form. Cooking together provides one kind of shared time. One person taking responsibility for a meal while another goes out with friends provides another arrangement. The survey records the tasks and their distribution. How a household chooses to arrange them leaves room for the people involved to have a say.

Recognizing the time within care

The childcare findings add another dimension to this picture. Using data pooled across 2015 to 2019, the report found that adults living with a child under six spent an average of 2.2 hours a day on childcare as their main activity. Where the youngest child was aged six to 17, the average was 48 minutes. The age of children was associated with a substantial difference in the time adults devoted directly to their care.

Responsibility also continued while adults were doing something else. Those living with a child under six averaged 5.4 hours a day with a child in their care during other activities. About two of those hours overlapped with leisure. Those are overlapping parts of the same day, not extra hours to add to it.

This helps distinguish two kinds of time a person might share with a friend. Enjoying company while remaining responsible for a child and spending time together while someone else provides care involve different arrangements. Including children can be part of the pleasure of a visit. Arranging care can also give adults time to follow a conversation without being the person who needs to respond. Both have a place in understanding what a welcome invitation might involve.

The report also records the shared activities within care itself. Alongside feeding, bathing and other practical tasks were reading, talking, playing and doing hobbies with children. Adults living with a child under six averaged about 35 minutes a day playing or doing hobbies with household children. Play sits within the practical work of caring for a child. It also gives an adult and child something to do together, with room for laughter, attention and the pleasure of one another's company.