What do you spend your day doing?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new results from the 2025 American Time Use Survey, showing how many hours a day, on average, were spent doing different primary activities.
Americans from young adults to Gen Xers devoted large chunks to sleeping, work-related activities, and leisure. Teens spent more time a day on educational activities than other groups, while people who were at least in their mid-60s spent more time than others on household activities. Men spent more time than women working, while women spent more time on household activities.
You can take the quiz below to see how your day compares to the survey results.
On average, personal care took up the most time; this category includes activities such as sleeping, showering, and hair care. Slightly more time was spent on this on the weekend and holidays than on weekdays — at 10.44 and 9.53 hours respectively. Household activities averaged about 2 hours a day, with food preparation and cleanup taking 0.7 hours. These averages include those who didn't participate in activities.
The new data also shows how workers spend their day. They're spending just as much time on personal care as on work. Full-time employed people spent 8.45 hours on a weekday and 5.49 hours on a weekend day working. People with at least a bachelor's degree spent fewer hours working than those with other educational attainments.
On days worked, employed full-time people spent about 3 hours a day on average on leisure and sports, about an hour on household activities, and about an hour on eating and drinking.
Women spent more time a day on average than men on housework, food prep, and caring for children. Meanwhile, men spent more time on lawn and garden care, working, and sports, exercise, and recreation.
As age rose, so did hours spent alone. Unemployed people spent more time alone than those working, 7.11 waking hours and 6.63, respectively.
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Madison Hoff is a reporter on Business Insider’s economy team. She covers the labor market, inflation, spending, and other data. In addition to covering new estimates and trends, her workforce reporting includes career pivots, job searching, and side hustles.She also covers downsizing, particularly people selling their houses to pursue RV living. She has also reported on how much teachers spend out of pocket and what it’s like being a caregiver.Her stories often cover the state of the economy, what experts are saying, and how people are navigating the workplace or their careers.Previously, she was a junior reporter and data editorial fellow on the Strategy team.A few of her stories:
- Job-market trend: Welcome to the 'Great Freeze': Why companies aren't firing, workers can't grow, and the unemployed can't get jobs
- Job-market trend: Everyone's focused on AI — but it's aging Americans who are quietly rewiring the job market
- Career pivot: I retired early from my federal job and took a part-time job at TJ Maxx. I'm happier and less stressed.
- Downsizing/RV living: An empty-nester couple who traded in a $400K house for an $80K RV explain their favorite parts of retirement on the road
- Job searching: People who haven't had steady work for at least a year are networking, doing temporary jobs, and soul-searching
- Side hustles: A millennial who used side hustles to pay off debt explains the lucrative and easy ones she recommends
- Teacher spending: A teacher who spent more than $5,000 of her own money to make a cozy classroom explains why it helps kids learn
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