American Time Use Survey, 2005

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) collects information on
how people living in the United States spend their time. Data
collected in this study measured the amount of time that people spent
doing various activities in 2005, such as paid work, child care,
religious activities, volunteering, and socializing. Respondents were
randomly selected from households that had completed their final month
of the Current Population Survey (CPS), and were interviewed two to
five months after their household's last CPS interview. Respondents
were interviewed only once and reported their activities for the
24-hour period from 4 a.m. on the day before the interview until 4
a.m. on the day of the interview. Respondents indicated the total
number of minutes spent on each activity, including where they were
and whom they were with. Except for secondary child care, data on
activities done simultaneously with primary activities were not
collected. Part 1, Respondent and Activity Summary File, contains
demographic information about respondents and a summary of the total
amount of time they spent doing each activity that day. Part 2,
Roster File, contains information about household members and
nonhousehold children under the age of 18. Part 3, Activity File,
includes additional information on activities in which respondents
participated, including the location of each activity and the total
time spent on secondary child care. Part 4, Who File, includes data on
who was present during each activity. Part 5, ATUS-CPS 2005 File,
contains data on respondents and members of their household collected
two to five months prior to the ATUS interviews during their
participation in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Parts 6-10
contain supplemental data files that can be used for further analysis
of the data. Part 6, Case History File, contains information about the
interview process, such as identifiers and interview outcome codes.
Part 7, Call History File, gives information about each call attempt,
including the call date and outcome. Part 8, Trips File, provides
information about the number, duration, and purpose of overnight trips
away from home for two or more nights in a row. Part 9, Replicate
Weights File I, contains base weights, replicated base weights, and
replicate final weights for each case that was selected to be
interviewed for ATUS, while Part 10, Replicate Weights File II,
contains replicate weights that were generated using the 2006
weighting method. Demographic variables include sex, age, race,
ethnicity, education level, income, employment status, occupation,
citizenship status, country of origin, relationship to household
members, and the ages and number of children in the household.