How Americans Spend Their Free Time, Part 2

Last week, we showed you how Americans spend their free time, as divided by different income groups. This week’s visualization is a continuation of that theme – it also comes from data scientist Henrik Lindberg, and it shows the peak times that Americans do certain leisure activities.

Again, data is coming from the American Time Use Survey that is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Peak Leisure Times

It’s clear that some activities have very distinct peaks for when participation rates reach their maximum share.

After work, for example, in the time period between 6:00pm and 9:00pm is when most Americans play softball, bowling, and volleyball in their free time. Later on, is when they would go dancing or play late-night billiards – often not coming back until the early morning hours.

Other team sports like football, baseball, and soccer also have distinct maximums. These ones are a little earlier in the afternoon or evening, before softball, bowling, and volleyball reach their peaks.

Keeping It Steady

Other activities have local peaks found throughout the day, or they simply have flatter distributions that represent steadier participation rates over time.

Fitness is particularly interesting to look at – for solo physical activities like running, working out, doing aerobics, or using cardiovascular equipment, there are two peaks: one in the morning, and one in the evening. The local peaks in the evening are usually not as high as their morning counterparts.

On the other hand, some activities are done at fairly equal rates throughout the day. When people go fishing, they are usually holding their rods pretty equally from 9am through to 6pm. Hunting is similar, though it starts far earlier in the day, and tails off faster than fishing as well. Two other activities that have pretty even distributions throughout the day are biking and racket sports like tennis, badminton, or squash.