Time use

Distribution of the hours in a person's day spent doing various activities.

This indicator is measured in the General Social Survey (GSS) - Time Use. This survey employs a retrospective 24-hour time diary to collect information on respondents' participation in, and time spent on, a wide variety of day-to-day activities, lasting at least 10 minutes. Information is also collected on the location that these activities occurred and, for non-personal activities, the people who were with the respondent at the time of the activity.

For more information, please refer to 2015 Time Use Survey Technical Note.

• General Social Survey (GSS) - Time Use
  • Table 45-10-0014-01 – Daily average time spent in hours on various activities by age group and sex, 15 years and over, Canada and provinces
  • Table 45-10-0014-02 – Daily average time in hours and proportion of day spent on unpaid domestic and care work by sex
  • Table 45-10-0014-03 – Daily average time spent in hours on transport to and from activities, by mode of transport

• Ready, set, snooze! (Statistics Canada - Infographics, October 10, 2018)
• Time to eat (Statistics Canada - Infographics, March 23, 2018)

• Time use among persons with disabilities in Canada (Reports on Disability and Accessibility in Canada, December 2, 2022)
• Time Use: Total work burden, unpaid work, and leisure (Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report, July 30, 2018)
• A day in the life: How do older Canadians spend their time? (Insights on Canadian Society, March 21, 2018)
• Changes in parents' participation in domestic tasks and care for children from 1986 to 2015 (Spotlight on Canadians: Results from the General Social Survey, June 1, 2017)

The report Internet use and COVID-19: How the pandemic increased the amount of time Canadians spend online based on data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) provides insight on time spent online during the pandemic. (StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada, June 24, 2021)