Time use in the NetherlandsEdition 1

Most time spent on personal care and leisure

The figure shows how many hours people spend on the six categories each week. People can multitask, but we report the activity that - according to the respondent - was the ‘primary activity’. Dutch people aged 12 years and older spend almost half the week on personal care. They spend 59 hours per week sleeping and around 18 hours per week on other types of personal care, such as eating and washing. People spend just over 40 hours to leisure activities. This roughly equals the time spent on a full-time job. Men spend three hours per week more on leisure than women. But women spend around three hours more per week on personal care.

Men spend more time on paid work, women spend more time on care

A quarter of the week is spent on paid and unpaid work activities. But compared to men, women spend more time on the household and care tasks, and report fewer hours of paid work. Women thus still spend more time in the domestic domain, whereas paid work occupies a more central role for men.

Weekly time spend on studying, volunteering, and meetings is limited

The Dutch spend an average of 3 hours and 20 minutes per week studying and doing homework; They spend an average of 2.5 hours per week on voluntary activities and meetings. These low averages are largely explained by the fact that a high proportion of the population spend no time at all on these activities.

Differences between the days of the week and times of day

The time use data also enable us to analyse the timing of activities. What is the evidence for the popular assumption that we are moving towards a 24/7 society in which people work in the evenings and at weekends? And do the Dutch still have dinner at 6.00 p.m.?

The weekdays look very similar. People spend almost 11 hours on personal care (including sleep). The amount of leisure time roughly equals the total amount of time spent on paid work, household and family care and study. Friday is the weekday that most closely resembles the weekend days. This could indicate that Friday is a popular part-time day.

The data suggest that Dutch society is still far from a 24/7 society. People spend little time in employment at the weekend. Sunday is a day of rest, with a relatively large amount of time spent on personal care and leisure.

An examination of the timing of activities during the day, also shows little evidence for a 24/7 economy. People mainly work between 8.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. There is a dip in the percentage of people with paid work around noon, suggesting that a substantial number of people take a break around lunchtime. The peak in personal care time around 6.00 p.m. suggests that a large proportion of the Dutch still have dinner early in the evening. Leisure activities mostly take place during the evening. On Saturdays people spend more time on leisure, household and family care throughout the day.

Paid work is concentrated during office hours and on weekdays. At 8.00 p.m. on Tuesdays, 6% of the respondents are spending time on paid work; at 10.00 p.m. this proportion has dropped to 3%. On Saturday mornings and afternoons, the percentage of people that is working fluctuates between 6% and 8%; on Saturday evening only 2% spend time on paid employment. These people may be working overtime, but they may also have a job that involves working outside normal office hours (e.g. nursing or the hospitality industry).

Dividing lines in time

Differences between social groups can manifest themselves in several ways (Bovens et al. 2014; Vrooman et al. 2014). Time use data can provide valuable insights into differences in behaviour. It is precisely for this reason that ‘Time’ is one of the six core domains in the Gender Equality Index published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (2017). Does the behaviour of men and women, and of different educational and age groups differ? Or are the similarities greater than the differences?

Recently, the gap between different educational and income groups has received a great deal of attention from researchers and politicians (Bovens et al. 2014; nos.nl 2017; Piketty 2017; Rijksoverheid 2017). The ageing of the population has also made the well-being of the over-65s a topical issue (Van den Broek et al. 2016; Van den Broek 2016; NOS 2017; Rijksoverheid 2017). We therefore look at gender, educational level and age.

Differences between men and women

There are clear differences in men’s and women's time use in the domains of employment and care. This reflects the gendered division of labour. Gender roles still differ and stimulate men to focus on paid work and women to focus on caring for the household and family (Bianchi & Milkie 2010; European Institute for Gender Equality 2017). Women also spend slightly more time on personal care and slightly less time on leisure activities. A more detailed analysis shows that men spend more time on ICT, sports and hobbies, while women spend more time bathing/showering and dressing than men.

Educational differences

Someone’s educational level is indicative of someone’s preferences and opportunities (Bovens et al. 2014). Higher-educated men spend more time on employment and care than lower-educated men. Women with a higher educational level also report more time in paid work, but the differences in time spent on care tasks are small. Those with a higher educational level have a strong labour market position and higher career ambitions, which may explain why they work longer hours (Cloïn 2013; Van der Horst 2014; Portegijs & Van Brakel 2016). The finding that higher educated men spend most time on household and family care reflects the importance these men attach to an equal division of housework.

Differences between educational groups can also be observed in the other domains. Lower-educated respondents spend more time on leisure activities and personal care than the higher-educated respondents. The latter finding is mainly the result of the overrepresentation of young people (aged 12-19 years) in the low-educated group; if this group is excluded, lower-educated people actually spend less time studying (half an hour per week compared with 100 minutes per week for people with intermediate and high education).

Life stage with children relatively busy

Different life stages bring different opportunities and constraints (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004; Bianchi & Milkie 2010; Kraaykamp et al. 2013). For example, single people have a great deal of control over their time use, whereas people with a partner and children have to coordinate their time use with others. In addition, young and older people's daily lives show large differences. For example, many young people go to school, which implies that they spend more time studying and less time on paid work and care. Younger and older individuals also spend a relatively large proportion of their time on leisure activities and personal care. The life stage with children is the busiest in terms of time spent on paid and unpaid work. In contrast to what is sometimes assumed, mothers are not busier than fathers. On the contrary: in the life stage with children in the household, men spend almost 3.5 hours per week more on the sum of paid and unpaid work than women.

The other cards in this card stack look in more detail at Personal care, Employment, Household and care and Leisure. We focus on these domains because people spend most time on these activities. The Time use report (to be published in the second half of 2018) will look at these aspects in more depth.