American Time Use Survey (ATUS), 2011 (ICPSR 34453)

Version Date: Oct 22, 2014

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34453.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) collects information on how people living in the United States spend their time. Data collected in this study measured the amount of time that people spent doing various activities in 2011, such as paid work, child care, religious activities, volunteering, and socializing. Respondents were interviewed only once about how they spent their time on the previous day, where they were, and whom they were with. Part 1, Activity File, includes additional information on activities in which respondents participated, including the location of each activity and the total time spent on secondary child care. Part 2, Call History File, gives information about each call attempt. Part 3, Case History File, contains information about the interview process. Part 4, ATUS-CPS File, contains demographic and occupational data on respondents and members of their household collected during their participation in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Part 5, Respondent File, contains demographic information about respondents. Part 6, Roster File, contains information about household members and non-household children under the age of 18. Part 7, Eldercare Roster File, file contains information about people for whom ATUS respondents provided care. Part 8, Activity Summary File, contains a summary of the total amount of time they spent doing each activity that day. Part 9, Replicate Weight File, contains miscellaneous ATUS weights. Part 10, Who File, includes codes that indicate who was present during each activity. Part 11, ATUS Leave Module Respondent File, contain information related to wage and salary workers' access to paid and unpaid leave and the ability to adjust their work schedules and locations instead of taking leave or because they didn't have access to leave. Part 12, ATUS Leave Module Replicate Weights File, contains weights for Part 11, ATUS Leave Module Respondent File.

Citation

United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. American Time Use Survey (ATUS), 2011. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-10-22. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34453.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

State

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2011

Date of Collection

2011

Data Collection Notes

  1. The activity code variables in Part 8 are preceded by the letter "T" and include a six-digit activity classification code. Activity classification codes and examples of activities can be found in the ATUS Coding Lexicon. For more information about the ATUS Coding Lexicon, please refer to the User Guide in the Original P.I. Documentation section of the ICPSR Codebook.

  2. The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) was conducted by the United States Census Bureau.

  3. Additional information on the American Time Use Survey 2011 can be found by visiting the American Time Use Survey Web site.

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Study Purpose

The goal of the survey is to measure how people divide their time among life's activities and use the information to develop nationally representative estimates.

Sample

The ATUS is a nationally representative sample drawn from households that have completed their eighth and final interview for the Current Population Survey (CPS). Households were selected to ensure that estimates could be made across major demographic groups. One individual from each selected household was chosen to participate in the ATUS, and this person was interviewed only once about his or her time use. Please refer to the Original P.I. Documentation section of the ICPSR Codebook for additional information on sampling.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend / Repeated Cross-section

Universe

ATUS covers all residents living in households in the United States that are at least 15 years of age, with the exception of active military personnel and people residing in institutions such as nursing homes and prisons.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

The overall response rate was 56.4 percent.

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Original Release Date

2014-10-22

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. American Time Use Survey (ATUS), 2011. ICPSR34453-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-10-22. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34453.v1

2014-10-22 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

The data are not weighted, however, this collection contains weight variables that should be used for analysis. For more information regarding weights, please refer to the Original P.I. Documentation of the ICPSR Codebook.

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Notes