Irish National Time Use Survey, 2005

The Irish National Time-Use Survey 2005 is a pilot survey conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute for the NDP Gender Equality Unit of the Department of Justice, Equality, and Law Reform. It collects for the first time detailed national time-use statistics on Irish women and men’s daily activities. Just over 1,000 adults filled out two diaries that provided a complete record of their activities over a 24 hour period – one diary was completed for a weekday and another for a weekend day. These results provide nationally representative and accurate estimates of the amount of time people in Ireland spend on a wide range of activities from watching TV and volunteering, through to cleaning, childcare, travelling and employment. The results also quantify for the first time important differences in the time-use of women and men, such as differences in the time spent on caring and unpaid household work and differences in leisure time and leisure activities. These data also fill an important gap in comparative research, since up until now Ireland was one of the few countries in the developed world not to have time-use data.