How people allocate their 24 hours across commuting, entertainment, housework, and other daily activities from 1920 to 2026.
All figures represent the average U.S. adult aged 25 to 35 during each period, ensuring comparability across decades. The data reflects long-term shifts driven by industrialization, urbanization, television, the internet, smartphones, remote work, and changing social structures. The chart excludes sleep, work, and other activities that show minimal variation, focusing instead on structural changes over decades.
To create this video, I used a mixed-methods statistical approach. I harmonized legacy time-use datasets with modern analytics, using technological adoption curves (such as the exact rates of television or broadband internet saturation) to mathematically interpolate across gaps between historical surveys.
Here is the primary list of sources and databases used to compile this dataset:
Modern Time-Use Data (2003 – Present): Extracted directly from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Historical Time-Diary Studies (1960 – 2000): Harmonized data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) and the American Heritage Time Use Study (AHTUS), heavily relying on the foundational time-diary work of sociologist John P. Robinson (Americans’ Use of Time, 1965, 1975, 1985).
Early Century Baselines (1920 – 1950): Extrapolated from legacy sociological studies, including the famous Middletown Studies (Lynd & Lynd, 1929, 1937) and George Lundberg’s Leisure: A Suburban Study (1934), alongside historical US labor statistics.
Data cross-referenced with historical Nielsen Media Research (for Radio and Broadcast TV dominance), eMarketer, and the Pew Research Center (for the explosion of Internet and Social Media adoption). Data regarding the decline of physical socializing, religious activities, and sexual frequency were sourced from the General Social Survey (GSS), the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the Kinsey Institute, and Gallup historical polling.
Note: All numbers represent a calculated demographic average. If a bar shows 60 minutes, it does not mean every single person spends an hour doing it; it means the total time spent by the population averages out to 1 hour per person.
Hi, I’m Sasha. I crunch numbers, play with data, and create cool visuals. If you enjoy my work, a little support can get me a coffee and a cookie for my baby girl Eva ☕🍪 https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/datai…
More Videos: