How Do Americans Spend Their Time?
Understanding your target audience’s preferences and habits paves the way for a more personalized ecommerce sales and marketing strategy. It helps you reach them where they are and speak in a language that resonates with them.
If your target buyers are located in the United States, you’ll need to know much more than their average yearly expenses or when they shop online. Here’s a look at how Americans spend their time every day.
How Americans spend their time: key statistics
- Activities on which Americans spend the most time are related to personal care. The average American spends close to 10 hours a day on personal care activities.
- American civilians spend 9.07 hours a day sleeping, which translates to around nine hours and four minutes.
- Americans spend an average of 4.63 hours working on weekdays and 1.12 hours on weekends.
- The average woman spends 0.89 hours (53 minutes) a day on housework, while her male counterpart spends 0.32 hours (19 minutes).
- Men watch two hours and 52 minutes of television every day, while women do so for two hours and 28 minutes.
How do Americans spend their time every day: table
|
Activity |
Average hours per day |
Men |
Women |
|
Personal care activities |
9.84 |
9.59 |
10.07 |
|
Leisure and sports |
5.15 |
5.56 |
4.76 |
|
Working and work-related activities |
3.56 |
4.17 |
2.98 |
|
Household activities |
1.92 |
1.49 |
2.32 |
|
Eating and drinking |
1.20 |
1.22 |
1.18 |
|
Purchasing goods and services |
0.66 |
0.55 |
0.76 |
|
Caring for and helping household members |
0.50 |
0.38 |
0.62 |
|
Educational activities |
0.39 |
0.36 |
0.42 |
|
Organizational, civic, and religious activities |
0.24 |
0.20 |
0.28 |
|
Caring for and helping nonhousehold members |
0.17 |
0.15 |
0.19 |
|
Telephone calls, mail, and email |
0.16 |
0.13 |
0.20 |
|
Others |
0.21 |
0.19 |
0.22 |
What do people do in their free time: top activities
According to the American time-use survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the activity that takes up the most amount of time is personal care. The average American spends 9.84 hours per day (or nine hours and 50 minutes) on personal care, which includes sleeping, grooming, and other health-related self-care activities. It’s worth noting that women spend around half an hour more on personal care every day than men.
Second on the list charting how Americans spend their day is leisure and sports. On average, US consumers spend 5.15 hours (five hours and nine minutes) a day on this pastime—whether that’s socializing, watching television, exercising, or other related activities. Unlike personal care activities, men spend more time (48 minutes) on leisure and sports than women.
This is followed by working and work-related activities, at 3.56 hours per day. The difference in time spent on this category between men and women is significant. The American time-use survey results show that men spend 4.17 hours a day on work or work-related activities, one hour and 11 minutes more than the 2.98 hours women spend.
Household activities like doing chores around the house, cooking, and caring for the garden are also on the list ranking how Americans spend their time—nearly two hours are spent on them every day.
Eating and drinking take up 1.2 hours a day for the average American. This includes eating and drinking at home and dining out, be it alone or with others. This is followed by purchasing goods and services, which consumers spend close to 40 minutes a day doing.
FAQs on how Americans spend their time
1. How much time do Americans spend on their phones?
The average American spends 0.16 hours (10 minutes) a day on telephone calls, mails, and emails. Men spend eight minutes every day while women spend 12 minutes.
The average time spent on phones, mails, and emails is lower on weekends—eight minutes, compared to 11 minutes on weekdays.
2. How much time do we spend sleeping?
The US civilian population spends an average of 9.07 hours sleeping every day. This is around nine hours and four minutes. Data shows that women sleep more than men—nine hours and 10 minutes compared to men’s eight hours and 58 minutes.
The average person also spends more time sleeping on weekends, with nine hours and 41 minutes. On weekdays, eight hours and 48 minutes is spent sleeping, 53 minutes shorter than on weekends.
3. What is the average reading time per day among Americans?
The average reading time per day differs according to age group. According to the data, Americans aged 75 and above spend 46 minutes a day reading. Meanwhile, teenagers aged 15 to 19 read for just eight minutes every day.
The average US male spends 12 minutes a day reading, while females spend 19 minutes.