How much leisure time do americans have

Women typically enjoy less free time than men. And should you watch it while you work? A wandering mind reaps benefits you might not imagine. A somewhat scientific breakdown of how the prolific painter achieved his zen. Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights. The U. Figure 1. Discrepancies in data between this figure and Table 2 of this article are due to rounding.

Hispanics reported the least amount of free time and screen time Figure 2. Black women reported the most free time and the least physical activity time. Black women spent a mean SD of 2. Figure 2. Americans are less physically active than recommended by guidelines 1. Neither surveys of usual activity patterns nor objective measurement with accelerometers have provided a context.

Time use data such as those in the ATUS can add this dimension. Overall, the results for leisure time physical activity confirm patterns seen elsewhere: physical activity levels were lower among women than men; groups with lower income or education compared with those with higher income or educational achievement; older compared with younger respondents; and individuals with obesity compared with those in the normal weight range.

The ATUS results also confirm the particularly low levels of leisure time physical activity among black women. Time use researchers using less restrictive definitions find larger amounts of free time However, even with a restrictive definition, we found substantial amounts of free time, with no group averaging less than 4.

In the general press, but also in the public health literature, there appears to be a common belief that Americans have little free time. A number of qualitative publications discuss barriers and constraints. One systematic review included 42 studies, just on barriers to physical activity among African American women, and concluded that lack of free time is the most common barrier We found no evidence for those beliefs in nationally representative time use data.

Time use data provide a different perspective to physical activity surveys, accelerometer studies, or qualitative interviews, but have their own set of limitations. For example, time-diary—based estimates of paid work are typically lower than those based on questions about usual hours worked, and respondents tend to give even more inaccurate answers when asked estimate questions about numerous different nonwork daily activities, such as housework Time-diary implicitly constrains responses to sum to 24 hours in a day, and that aids understanding about time trade-offs.

Although the interview prompts for a sequence of activities, activities with short durations are underreported this is most pronounced for self-care activities. Duration of physical activity is calculated from starting and ending times, but it does not capture the intensity level throughout the period. Therefore, these reports cannot be translated into meeting national guidelines for moderate to vigorous physical activity Socializing and communicating is the next most popular activity and is the only one to nearly double on weekends 35 minutes on weekdays, 61 minutes on weekends.

Only 14 percent of high school graduates and 12 percent of workers without a high school diploma worked from home on an average day. Only 15 percent of Americans spend any time in an average day on organizational, civic or religious activities, but the people who do participate commit a hefty chunk of their time: 2 hours and fifteen minutes per day. At the same time, research has indicated that people who are busy tend to be happier than those who are idle, whether their busyness is purposeful or not.

A research paper released late last year investigated this trade-off, attempting to pinpoint how much leisure time is best. An experiment that the researchers arranged hinted at a possible explanation of the correlation they found.