American Time Use Statistics 2026: How Americans Spent Their Day in the Latest ATUS (2025 Data)

The latest American Time Use Survey, released June 25, 2026, reports 2025 annual averages for people age 15 and older. The headline: employed people worked on weekdays and weekends, leisure averaged 5.2 hours a day, and television took half of it. Below: the key figures with their denominators, how work and care vary, and a quick way to compare your own day.

American Time Use Survey 2026: the key results in one table

The newest ATUS release is dated June 25, 2026 and covers 2025 annual averages for people age 15 and older. The table puts the headline measures together; read the last column, because a daily average across everyone is not the same statistic as time among people who did an activity. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics ATUS release.

These are useful reference points, not a model day to copy. The survey also reports sharply different averages by age, education, gender, work status, and family situation.

How many hours do Americans work per day?

There is no single workday average for every American: among full-time employed people who worked, the reported duration was 8.1 hours on days worked, 8.5 on weekdays, and 5.5 on weekend workdays. The ATUS release also shows that work participation itself is more common on weekdays than weekends.

On an average weekday, 81% of employed people worked; on a weekend day, 30% did. Those shares answer “how many worked,” while the hour figures answer “how long did workers work?” Combining them into one number blurs two different questions.

Education groups differed on weekend workdays. High-school graduates with no college worked 6.4 hours, compared with 4.0 hours for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher. That is a group difference, not proof that education caused a shorter shift.

Location adds another wrinkle. On days worked, 35% of employed people worked at home and 70% worked at a workplace. Women were more likely than men to work at home, 38% versus 31%; the share was 51% for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and 19% for high-school graduates with no college. A workday may include both settings, so the location percentages overlap.

How much leisure time do Americans have, and how much is TV?

Leisure and sports averaged 5.2 hours a day, and 95% of people participated; television accounted for 2.6 hours. The BLS release makes clear that “leisure” covers more than screen time, though TV takes a large share of the total.

PlainReads calculation: 2.6 hours divided by 5.2 hours means TV accounts for 50% of average leisure. Men averaged 5.6 hours of leisure, compared with 4.8 hours for women. By age, people age 75 and older averaged 7.4 hours, while people ages 35–44 averaged 3.9 hours.

Those gaps describe different lives and constraints, not who is using time well. Work schedules, health, household responsibilities, and care all affect the room a person has for leisure. A work-life balance guide can help turn the broad category into a question about what feels restorative to you.

How much time goes to household work and childcare?

Household activities occupied 81% of people on an average day, for about 2 hours; childcare figures depend on the child’s age and whether care is the main activity. The ATUS release separates participation from time, and primary from secondary care.

Women participated in household activities at 87% and spent 2.8 hours on participant days; for men, the figures were 75% and 2.1 hours. People ages 15–19 averaged 43 minutes, while those age 65 and older averaged 2.7 hours. These participant and age-specific figures should not be mistaken for one universal household-work average.

Adults with a child under age 6 spent 2.3 hours on primary childcare. Women averaged 2.8 hours and men 1.7 hours. Adults with a child under age 13 spent 5.1 hours on secondary childcare: care happening alongside another activity, including 1.9 hours during leisure and 1.2 hours during household work.

Counting only primary childcare misses care that shares time with chores or leisure. That matters for parents making a realistic plan: two activities may occupy the same stretch of the day even if a diary classifies one as primary.

What changed since 2015?

Between 2015 and 2025, socializing participation and time were lower, while time spent on games and computer leisure was higher. The BLS release offers comparisons, but the figures describe population patterns and do not explain why people changed activities.

Socializing participation was 38% in 2015 and 30% in 2025. Average time socializing moved from 41 minutes to 35 minutes. Games and computer leisure moved from 25 minutes to 37 minutes; people ages 15–19 spent 1.5 hours on games and computer leisure.

These calculations summarize the reported inputs; they are not separate survey estimates. If screen time is the part you want to change, a practical digital minimalism reset is a better starting point than treating a national average as a personal target.

How to compare your own day with the averages

Use a short time check to spot one meaningful gap, not to grade yourself against a population. Track a typical weekday for ten minutes, then compare like with like; a seven-day time audit can reveal whether that day is typical.

Write the time you actually spend in each row. For the ATUS column, use the matching figure only when the population fits you; “not directly comparable” is more honest than forcing a mismatch.

For each row, subtract the ATUS comparison from your own time, or note why the categories do not match. The point is to see whether a small adjustment would help, not to make every day resemble an average. If planning feels crowded, the daily planning template can help you choose a realistic priority.

Methodology, limitations, and sources

ATUS is a continuous time-diary survey conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics; the latest cited release reports 2025 annual averages for people age 15 and older. The BLS release says survey operations were suspended from October 1 through November 12, 2025, so diaries were not collected during that interval.

The survey asks people to report how they spent a day. Its measures have different denominators: all people, employed people, people who worked that day, participants, or adults in a particular family group. “Average day” and “days worked” cannot be swapped, and participant time is not the same as time averaged across everyone.

Associations do not establish causes. For example, the work-at-home difference by education does not show that education itself produced the difference; age, occupation, and household circumstances may also vary between groups. The same caution applies to parenthood, leisure, gender, and age comparisons.

These figures belong to a specific data vintage: the release dated June 25, 2026. If BLS revises estimates later, use one consistent vintage for comparisons. For a personal next step, keep a short diary and choose one change you can sustain; readers who want a compact system for prioritizing the day can see Do Only 3 Things a Day.

Frequently asked questions

When was the latest American Time Use Survey released?

The latest release was published June 25, 2026 and reports 2025 annual averages. It covers people age 15 and older.

Are these figures a literal schedule for every adult?

No, they are population averages from time diaries. Work, care, household duties, and leisure differ across people, and many figures apply only to a defined group such as people who worked or activity participants.

Why can work-at-home and workplace percentages add to more than 100%?

Because a person can work in both places on the same day. The 35% at-home and 70% workplace figures describe overlapping locations, not exclusive categories.

Does more leisure mean better work-life balance?

No, leisure hours alone do not measure satisfaction or balance. They show time use, while health, preferences, paid work, and care responsibilities shape whether a person feels their week is working.