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AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS (ABS)


NAME OF COLLECTION

The Time Use Survey (TUS)


OVERVIEW

The Time Use Survey (TUS) is an irregular national survey which collects information about how people use their time.

Time use relates to a wide range of topics, so the objectives are varied, including to:

• measure the daily activity patterns of people in Australia to establish the current Australian time use profile
• measure the volume of unpaid household, voluntary and community work, in its own right and as a basis for a satellite account for unpaid household work
• provide information on the differences in patterns of paid work and unpaid household and community work by sex and other characteristics
• provide information on the ways in which Australians balance work and family obligations
• provide information on a wide range of other areas of interest, such as family dynamics, caring for people with disabilities and frail older people, caring for children, education activities, leisure activities, fitness and health activities, radio and television listening/watching; use of other technology; transport, public and private household equipment; outsourcing of domestic tasks and patterns of interaction with others
• allow comparisons between surveys to identify changes in patterns of time use over time.

• Country of birth
  • Born in Australia
  • Born in other main English-speaking countries
  • Other
• Country of birth of mother
• Country of birth of father
• Year of arrival in Australia
• First language spoken
• Main language spoken at home
• Proficiency in spoken English (has been added for the 2006 survey)
  
  Note: Birthplace data are coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Countries for Social Statistics, however the standard output could need to be collapsed to a more aggregated level (such as region of birth) because of the relatively small sample size.