The Family and Free Time - How Much Leisure Time Do We Get?

Do we have less free time? We long for an extra hour in the day to clear off our desks at work, run errands, cook a real dinner, or sit and read the morning paper. How much time do we have for work and play? The panel above shows the results of a survey by Harris. It suggests that the amount of our work and leisure time has been rather consistent for two decades.²

The median time available to people to relax, watch television, play sports, indulge their hobbies, or socialize with friends was 20 hours in 2001. This figure has remained nearly unchanged since 1980, but nine hours were lost between 1973 and 1987. Some of this must come from the changing role of women. More females left the home to enter the workforce; women also moved into executive positions that made more demands on their time.

The survey also asked about people's work hours, which include time on the job, keeping house, and going to school (including travel time). People reported spending more hours in their work. People spent 41 hours working in 1973; they reported working 50 hours in 2001. This is an increase of 9 hours - more than the typical 8-hour workday. Do we have busier lives now than in 1973?

Let's look at these numbers a little more closely. There are 168 hours in a week; we spend roughly 56 of them asleep (if we're lucky). This leaves 112 hours open. In 1973, people spent 67 hours at work and relaxation; in 2001, they spent 70. This leaves 45 hours a week (6.4 hours a day) up for grabs in 1973; 42 hours (6 hours a day) remained in 2001. Is this time devoted to personal care? Or was it perhaps devoted to childcare? Childcare was not included in the survey — perhaps because, as any parent doing such work can attest, it is heavy labor.

	1973 Hours	2001 Hours
Hours in Week	168	168
Hours Asleep	56	56
Hours Work/Leisure	67	70
Remaining Hours Per Week	45	42

It's possible that the survey respondents overestimated their time spent on various activities. They did not keep time logs. Logs tend to offer more accurate representations of how people actually spend their time. The survey is useful in the questions it raises: Are we losing our free time? Over the last decade, have some of us found some balance between our work and recreational lives?

The next panel will examine how we feel about our work and free time.

Source: "Reading, TV, Spending Time With Family, Gardening and Fishing Top List of Favorite Leisure-Time Activities." PR News-wire. 8 August 2001.