The pie charts illustrate the proportions of time that working adults in a particular country spent on six different activities in 1958 and 2008.
Overall, working accounted for the largest proportion of adults’ time in both years, although the figure increased considerably over the period. By contrast, the amount of time spent sleeping and going out with friends or family decreased. The most notable increase was in the proportion of time devoted to relaxing at home and travelling to work.
In 1958, working represented 33% of adults’ time, followed by sleeping at 32%. Going out with friends or family accounted for 19%, while 8% of the time was spent relaxing at home. Only 2% was devoted to travelling to work, and other interests or playing sports made up the remaining 6%.
By 2008, the proportion of time spent working had risen to 42%, making it the clear largest category. In contrast, sleeping fell to 25%, while going out with friends or family experienced a particularly sharp decline, from 19% to just 6%. Meanwhile, the percentage of time spent relaxing at home increased from 8% to 13%. Travel to work also rose significantly, from 2% to 8%, whereas other interests and playing sports remained unchanged at 6%.