INTRODUCTION
The Time Use Survey (TUS), conducted in 1992, 1997 and 2006, collected information on the daily activity patterns of Australians aged 15 years and over. This chapter examines how people spend their free time using data from the 2006 TUS. Free time is the time remaining after time devoted to essential activities (such as personal hygiene, paid work, housework etc.) has been deducted from a person's day. Free time spent on sport and outdoor activity is compared with time spent on other activities. The TUS defined sport and outdoor activity as including organised and informal sport, exercise, walking, fishing, hiking and holiday travel and driving for pleasure.
Although many holiday and travel activities include sport or physical recreation (particularly walking for recreation and swimming at the beach), the inclusion of holiday travel and driving for pleasure does not align with the definitions of sport and physical recreation from data sources presented in Chapter 3 - Participation in Sport and Recreation.
Data from the TUS have been published in ABS (2008d) How Australians Use Their Time, 2006 (cat. no. 4153.0) and also in ABS (2010d) Time Use on Recreation and Leisure Activities, Australia, 2006 (cat. no. 4173.0).
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