INTRODUCTION
The Time Use Survey, 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 Time Use Survey. 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 Time Use Survey 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 sports 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 sports and physical recreation from data sources presented in Chapter 3 - Participation in Sport and Recreation.
Data from the Time Use Survey have been published in How Australians Use Their Time, 2006 (cat. no. 4153.0). Data are available for 'all persons' and 'participants'. 'All persons' refers to everyone in the Australian population aged 15 years and over, while 'participants' refers to those respondents who reported some time spent on a specific activity.
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