4151.0 - Information Paper: Time Use Survey, Basic CURF, Australia, 1997  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/02/1999   
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INTRODUCTION

This publication provides information about the release of microdata from the 1997 Time Use Survey (TUS). The data are released as a confidentialised unit record file (CURF) on CD-ROM under the conditions set out in this publication and subject to the approval of the Australian Statistician. The CURF will enable purchasers to tabulate, manipulate and analyse data to their own specifications. More detailed information to assist in using the CURF and interpreting the data will be provided in a technical paper which will accompany the file.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The 1997 TUS examined how people allocate time to different kinds of activities. The survey was conducted at four time intervals during 1997 in order to balance seasonal influences which affect patterns in the way people use their time. A previous survey was conducted in 1992 and a pilot survey in Sydney in 1987. The major aims of the 1997 TUS were:

  • to measure the daily activity patterns of people in Australia to establish current Australian time use profile;
  • to study the differences in patterns of paid work and unpaid household and community work by sex and other characteristics; and
  • to make comparisons with the 1992 survey to identify changes in patterns of time use.

The survey also provides information on time spent caring for people with disabilities and frail older people, caring for children, community participation, including voluntary work, leisure activities, fitness and health activities, travel, use of technology, and outsourcing of domestic tasks.

Time use may vary according to the day of the week and particularly between weekdays and weekends. All days of the week were surveyed in equal proportions, in a 13-day period in each of the four seasons of the year, with school and public holidays represented in approximately the same proportion as they occurred during the year. Diaries were therefore completed on specified days, and placement of diaries was made no earlier than three days before the first specified day.

The survey was conducted over four 13-day periods in 1997, as follows:

Monday 27 January to Saturday 8 February 1997;
Monday 21 April to Saturday 3 May 1997;
Monday 23 June to Saturday 5 July 1997; and
Monday 27 October to Saturday 8 November 1997.

The survey was conducted throughout Australia under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

The survey covered residents of private dwellings in urban and rural areas across all States and Territories of Australia. All households within selected dwellings were included in the survey and all persons aged 15 years or older were in scope, with the following exceptions:
  • certain non-Australian diplomatic personnel;
  • overseas residents in Australia; and
  • members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

Also excluded were some 175,000 persons living in remote and sparsely settled parts of Australia. The exclusion of these persons will have only a minor impact on any aggregate estimates that are produced.

Trained Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) interviewers collected information from an adult member of the household about all persons aged 15 years or more in the household. A diary was then left for each of these persons to record their activities over two specified days.

Detailed information about the survey is contained in the publication Time Use Survey, Australia-Users' Guide, 1997 (cat. no. 4150.0). An overview of survey results is contained in How Australians Use Their Time, 1997 (cat. no. 4153.0).

In addition to these publications and the CURF, an extensive range of other unpublished data is available from the ABS on request.