Time use survey, 2000/01, diary file

The Time use survey is a survey of people's activities and interaction patterns. A representative sample of the population has led diaries and recorded what they do and who they are with. They are also interviewed in relation to the keeping of the diary. It is recorded in diaries for 12 months. The time use Survey 2000-01, Statistics Norway has conducted four such surveys. The three last conducted in 1971-72, 1980-81 and 1990-91.
The time use survey is our most important source for knowledge about how much and what type of unpaid work is performed in the population, who performs this work and when it is performed. Also the survey is the only souce to data about the population's daily rythm,about spare time activities and about time spent with offspring and other family. Paid work is also covered in other surveys, but in the time use survey this can be studied in relation to time use in general.
The time use survey complements eg. the survey of living conditions in that it reveals how people actually live within the possibilities and limitations livelihoods provides. The living conditions survey and the time use survey first and foremost maps main conditions and relations. They say less about how people experience everyday, what their desires and motives are or what certain activities mean to the individual. Investigations of action frames, actual pattern of behavior and the importance of the action of the individual are three different but complementary ways of describing society.
Time use surveys provide a picture of people's daily lives. Results from several points in time therefore tells how Norwegians way of living changes. Comparisons across national borders shows how Norwegians differ from people in other countries.