Age
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When reading the charts in this publication:- solid bars have significant differences in time to at least one other group
- hatched bars have no significant difference to any other group
- missing bars mean that this value has been suppressed due to small numbers of responses for that breakdown
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1 Introduction
Age is grouped in the following ways: 18 to 24, 25 to 44, 45 to 64 and 65+.
There were 380 diary days for respondents aged 65+, 436 diary days for respondents aged 45 to 64, 258 diary days for respondents aged 25 to 44, and 26 diary days for respondents aged 18 to 24.
Small sample sizes can affect significance estimates. For this reason caution is advised when making comparisons between groups with a sample of fewer than 50. This is the case with the age category of 18 to 24 where there are fewer than 50 diary days, thus readers are advised to exercise care when interpreting the following results.
2 Activity type
2.1 Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on free time, personal care and unpaid work than other age groups, but less time on paid work
Figure 1: Bar chart showing average time spent on the different activity types by age, Scotland, 2020
Almost all respondents spent time on free time activities. Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on free time activities (an average of 6 hours and 46 minutes per day) compared to respondents aged 45 to 64 (an average of 5 hours and 32 minutes per day), respondents aged 25 to 44 (4 hours and 54 minutes), and respondents aged 18 to 24 (4 hours and 50 minutes).
Considering the category of paid work, respondents aged 65+ spent less time on these activities (an average of 21 minutes per day), compared to respondents aged 45 to 64 (3 hours and 11 minutes), and respondents aged 25 to 44 (3 hours and 32 minutes).
Only 8% of respondents aged 65+ spent time on paid work, compared to nearly a half of those aged 45 to 64 (48%) and (50%) of those aged 25 to 44.
All respondents spent time on personal care activities, which includes sleeping. Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on personal care (11 hours and 48 minutes) compared to respondents aged 45 to 64 (11 hours and 0 minutes), and respondents aged 25 to 44 (11 hours and 18 minutes).
Almost all respondents spent time on unpaid work. Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on unpaid work (4 hours and 26 minutes) than respondents aged 25 to 44 (3 hours and 46 minutes) and respondents aged 45 to 64 (3 hours and 56 minutes).
3 Paid work
3.1 Respondents aged 65+ spent less time on paid work
Figure 2: Bar chart showing average time spent on paid work by age, Scotland, 2020
As demonstrated in figure 1, respondents aged 65+ spent less time on paid work overall compared to respondents aged 25 to 44 and those aged 45 to 64.
Respondents aged 18 to 24 and those aged 65+ spent less time doing paid work from home (an average of 14 minutes and 6 minutesper day respectively) compared to respondents aged 25 to 44 (1 hour and 44 minutes) and respondents aged 45 to 64 (1 hour and 12 minutes).
Respondents aged 65+ are more likely to be retired so it is therefore not surprising that they spent less time on paid work than other age groups.
4 Unpaid work
4.1 Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on housework/cooking and other unpaid work
Figure 3: Bar chart showing average time spent on unpaid work by age, Scotland, 2020
Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on housework/cooking (an average of 2 hours and 0 minutes per day) than repondents aged 25 to 44 (1 hour and 22 minutes) and respondents aged 45 to 64 (1 hour and 47 minutes).
In addition, respondents aged 65+ spent more time on other unpaid work (1 hour and 28 minutes), compared to respondents aged 25 to 44 (34 minutes) and respondents aged 45 to 64 (1 hour and 6 minutes).
Respondents aged 45 to 64 also spent more time on other unpaid work compared to respondents aged 25 to 44 (1 hour and 6 minutes compared to 34 minutes).
Other unpaid work includes activities such as DIY, gardening, pet care, repairing and maintaining or making household goods, or vehicles and browsing things to buy later.
Respondents aged 25 to 44 spent more time on both developmental and non-developmental childcare than all other age groups.
5 Personal care
5.1 Respondents aged 18 to 24 spent less time on personal fitness
Figure 4: Bar chart showing average time spent on personal care by age, Scotland, 2020
Respondents aged 65+ spent more time on other personal care (an average of 2 hours and 43 minutes per day) than respondents aged 45 to 64 (2 hours and 16 minutes) and respondents aged 25 to 44 (1 hour and 56 minutes). Respondents aged 45 to 64 also spent more time on other personal care than respondents aged 25 to 44.
The other personal care category includes activities such as drinking (e.g. tea, coffee, alcohol), eating/eating out/having a takeaway, snacking, showering and getting ready, and using the bathroom.
Respondents aged 45 to 64 spent less time sleeping (8 hours and 32 minutes) than those aged 25 to 44 (9 hours and 6 minutes), and those aged 65+ (8 hours and 50 minutes).
Respondents aged 18 to 24 spent less time on personal fitness (3 minutes) than respondents aged 25 to 44 (17 minutes), respondents aged 45 to 64 (12 minutes), and respondents aged 65+ (15 minutes).
6 Free time
7 Did activity type
The differences between age groups for free time, paid work, unpaid work, and personal care when looking at only those respondents who did the activity were broadly the same as when looking at the whole sample (see figure 1).
8 Did paid work
The differences between age groups for paid work when looking at only those respondents who did the activity were broadly the same as when looking at the whole sample (see figure 2).
9 Did unpaid work
The differences between age groups for unpaid work when looking at only those respondents who did the activity were broadly the same as when looking at the whole sample (see figure 3).