How do young people, aged 17-25 spend their days?  

How many average hours are spent on normal activities like watching
TV, going online, sleeping, etc.  What does a day in the life of a
teen look like?

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 18 Jul 2005 14:29 PDT

Worldwide or in a specific country?

Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by asylvain-ga on 18 Jul 2005 18:50 PDT

Geography: United States

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 18 Jul 2005 19:16 PDT

Hi!

I was able to find a 2003 government survey but the age range is
15-24. Will this be ok with you?

Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by asylvain-ga on 19 Jul 2005 07:28 PDT

Yes, it should be.
How comprehensive is it?

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 19 Jul 2005 14:13 PDT

The activities mentioned are the following:

- Personal Care Activities
- Eating and Drinking
- Household Activities
- Purchasing Goods and Services
- Caring and Helping household members
- Caring and Helping non-household members
- Working and Work related actrivities
- Educational Activities
- Organizational, civic and religious activities
- Leisure and SPorts
- Phone calls, mail and email
- Other activies

Do the classification of the categories meet your needs? 

I will await your response.

Thanks again!

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Clarification of Question by asylvain-ga on 19 Jul 2005 14:33 PDT

Yes, if you have this data for 15-24 year olds only.

Hi! Thanks for the question.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides time use surveys in the United
States. Their latest data came from a 2003 survey. Here are the
statistics for the 15-24 age brackets.

Primary Activities:

ACTIVITY							Hours Spent Per Day

Personal Care Activities					9.95    
Eating and Drinking						0.96    
Household Activities						0.82    
Purchasing Goods and Services				        0.69    
Caring and Helping household members			        0.27    
Caring and Helping non-household members			0.32    
Working and Work related activities				2.65    
Educational Activities						2.20    
Organizational, civic and religious activities			0.26    
Leisure and Sports						5.46    
Phone calls, mail and email					0.24
Other activities						0.18

Source:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t03.htm 


You can view other time use surveys here but they do not categorize
them in tight age brackets.

American Time Use Survey
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.toc.htm 


Search Strategy:
Searched at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website: http://www.bls.gov/tus/ 

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
                 
Thanks for visiting us.                
                 
Regards,                 
Easterangel-ga                 
Google Answers Researcher

Additional commentary and analysis would be helpful.

This will be difficult to answer without a geographical limitation. A
teenager who lives in the jungles of South America is not likely to
spend his or her day in the same kinds of pursuits as a teenager in
San Francisco.

Geography: United States

Yes, it should be.
How comprehensive is it?

Just an observation: if you're looking for information on "teens,"
such a wide age range, including ages up to 24/25 will likely not give
you a fair picture, as young people of that upper age group are mostly
finished with college and out in the working world on their own, while
the younger ones are still in high school - a vast difference. For
instance, my 25-year-old son is an Army veteran, gainfully employed, a
homeowner, "papa" to five pets, and living entirely on his own. His
days are spent far differently than his 16-year-old stepsister who
still lives with her mom and stepdad, attends highschool and hangs out
with friends.

" asylvain-ga  rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
Additional commentary and analysis would be helpful."

Congratulations, Asylvain-ga, for accepting the answer so gracefully. 
It was indeed what you asked for and agreed would be acceptable. 
Other questioners might have carped when they saw the results ...

BECAUSE, as Pinkfreud-ga and Byrd-ga anticipated, even within the
geographical limitation of the USA but with an age span including two
basically different groups of persons the statistics almost defy
analysis.

I will assume that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did a good and fair job.

The age group seems to get a lot of healthy sleep and time in the bathroom.
"Eating and Drinking" and "Household Activities" seem to be approriate.
The retail industry will be very happy that they all spend 40 minutes
a day (4.6 hrs/wk) shopping (Purchasing Goods and Services).
And they are more helpful than I would have expected:  an apparent 7
hrs/week helping/caring for household and non-household persons, but
that is just an average.  The young wives and mothers are included,
husbands and fathers, too.

But with "Work and Work related" and "Educational Activities" the real
problem with the numbers becomes apparent.  15-24 year-olds: the BLS
did us a disservice by using this age bracket.  The first two or three
years should be in school, plus the US average of 18-24 year-olds in
higher education.  Maybe that is not as high as I thought. 2.20 hrs,
15.4 hrs/wk, 3 hrs on five days/wk?  It seems like the education
figure could be checked by other means.   It seems too low, even if
half the group is in education, then 6 hrs/week day.

Work:  2.65 hrs, 18.55 hrs/wk.  Half of the group working a 38 hr
week? Unlikely, a lot of parttime work, ...

Taking both activities together:  4.85 hrs x 7 = 34 hrs / 5 = 6.8 hrs/week day.
Maybe it makes sense.

The other categories:  okay, even though one has the impression that
15 min/day on the phone etc. is too low.

One can only speculate with the figures given, trying to make sense of them.

But I hope, nonetheless, that they can be of use to you.

Myoarin