The presented pie charts illustrate the allocation of time on different activities recorded from working adults between 1958 and 2008.
Overall, it can be clearly seen that their working period took up the majority time of the day in both years, and the proportion witnessed a significant rise in 2008, leading to a decline in free time for leisure activities.
First of all, the percentage of working and traveling to the company together occupied more than one-third of an adult’s time in 1958, at 35%. The figure even grew larger after 50 years, with working rising by 9% and travelling by 6%, contributing to a dominance of exactly half of the time in a day. In addition, while people only spent 8% of their time relaxing at home in 1958, this section gained a slight rise in the total time by 5%, ending at 13% in 2008.
Considering other cohorts, activities including sleeping, going out and other interests accounted for a smaller proportion. Although adults used to sleep nearly one-third of the day, the figure experienced a considerable drop to only 25% after 50 years. Similarly, time hanging out with friends or family also reported a drop in percentage by more than three times, from 19% to 6%. Other interests or playing sports continued to account for a minimal time allocation and saw a slight increase to 8%.