Do You Have Time On Your Hands?

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Dec 29, 2008 by Mark Maier

Top 10 Favorite Leisure-Time Activities (% of Respondents, Unaided Responses)
	*2003*	*2004*	*2007*	*2008*
Reading	24%	35%	29%	30%
TV watching	17	21	18	24
Spending time with family/kids	17	20	14	17
Exercise (aerobics, weights)	6	6	5	8
Computer activities	5	7	9	7
Fishing	9	8	7	7
Going to movies	7	10	7	6
Golf	3	4	5	6
Walking	4	6	6	6
Gardening	6	6	6	5
Source: Harris Poll, October 2008

Someone has time on thier hands, is it you? A new research report from Harris Interactive shows some interesting trends in what we do with our time and what our audience does with it as well....

The biggest changes this year in how people are using their precious leisure time were in TV watching (up 6 points), exercise (up 3 points) and spending time with family and kids (up 3 points)

Since 1995 the largest changes in how people are spending their leisure time are exercising (up 6 points), computer activities (up 5 points), spending time with family and kids (up 5 points) and swimming (down 5 points)

30% of Americans say their favorite activity is reading (up from 29% in 2007) while 24% say it is TV watching and 17% say it is spending time with family and kids (up from 14% in 2007). Rounding out the top five leisure time activities are exercise (8%) and computer activities and fishing (each at 7%);

The median amount of time spent working, including housekeeping and studying, is now at 46 hours per week, slightly from 45 hours in 2007. In 1973, when this question was first asked, the median was 41 hours a week

Generation Xers (ages 32-43) are working the most hours (55 each week), followed by 50 hours each week for Echo Boomers (18-31) and Baby Boomers (44-62). As many Matures are retired, they are only working 15 hours each week.

The statistic that I thought was interesting, in 1973 respondants worked 41 hours a week on average, today we work 46 hours which is actually down from the 50 hours reported in 2,000 and 2001.

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