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INEbase / Society / Standard, quality and conditions of life / Time Use Survey 2002-2003 / Methodology


Summary
List of activities. (PDF File 15 Kb.)
Project (PDF file 8 Kb.) (May 2003)
Methodology (DOC file 475 Kb.)
Volume I. Methodology and National Results (File pdf 2167 Kb.) (2004)


Summary

The main objective of this survey is to obtain primary information for getting to know the amount of non-remunerated labour carried out by households, the distribution of family responsibilities in the household, the populations participation in cultural and recreational activities, the time use of special social groups (youth, unemployed, elderly, ...) in order to be able to formulate family and gender equality policies and stimulate the households sector satellite accounts.

The Time Use Survey includes a methodology, harmonised in the EU Statistics Office (Eurostat), which covers a significant statistical gap existing in Spain both from an economic and social point of view.

This is a non periodic survey directed at a sample of approximately some 24,000 households, which obtains information on peoples daily activities by means of the completion of a personal diary and household and individual questionnaires. The sample is evenly distributed over the year in order to represent all days on a strata and Autonomous Community scale. However, the sample is potentiated on the weekend since it is considered that these days have a greater variety in the populations behaviour. For this purpose, the sample is subdivided in two sub-samples of equal size, one which must complete the diary from Monday to Friday and one which completes it from Friday to Sunday.

The activities diary constitutes the most characteristic instrument of the Survey. All members of the household 10 years old and over must complete it on a selected day. The diaries time frame occupies 24 consecutive hours (from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 the following day) and is divided into 10 minute intervals. In each of these, the informant must note the main activity, the secondary activity carried out at the same time (given the case) and if at that time they are in the presence of other known persons.

These activities are coded according to a harmonised list of activities from Eurostat, which considers 10 large groups: personal care, work, studies, household and family, volunteer work and meetings, social life and recreation, sports and open air activities, hobbies and games, means of communication, and non-specified travel and use of time. For greater detail on the list of activities see the annex at the end of this note.

This statistical research facilitates obtaining information on the percentage of persons that carry out an activity in the duration of day, the average time daily (in hours and minutes) dedicated to one activity by the persons that carry it out, the distribution of activities in an average day by type of day (workday or weekend) and the percentage of persons that carry out the same activity at the same time of day (daily activity rhythms).

These indicators can be grouped according to the type of day of the week or according to the quarter of the year. As far as variables related to the person, the data will be classified by gender, age, level of studies reached, marital status, activity and professional situation, occupation, income level, type of household resided in, etc. Furthermore, due to the sample design, the study also facilitates obtaining the main results previously mentioned for each one of the Autonomous Communities. The sample has been potentiated in four Autonomous Communities -Andalucía, Cataluña, Galicia and Navarra- with whose Statistics Institutes the INE has signed collaboration agreements, in order to obtain more detailed results.

In the second quarter of 2004 the definitive results will be published.