The main objective of the Time Use Survey (TUS) conducted in the period from 5 April 2021 to 4 April 2022 was to provide the information on how the population of the Republic of Serbia spend time within the course of 24 hours. The principal instrument applied was a diary where the household members aged 15 years and over entered activities, as well as the time (the amount and when) they spent to carry out the stated activities.
The presented data are referent to all persons interviewed in the Republic of Serbia and present the average time spent in doing the subject activity. For the purpose of facilitated presentation of the TUS data, the data in the table are classified into six major activity groups: Paid work / Unpaid work / Study / Personal care / Free time / Other activities (undefined activities and other travels).
For the TUS survey applied were the instruments fully adopted from the Harmonised European Time Use Survey (HETUS) 2018, 2019 edition
The data indicate that a citizen of the Republic of Serbia spends on average three hours in paid work activities (3:08). However, on average, women spend a bit less than two hours and a half (2:23), and men spend an hour and a half more (3:57), i.e. almost four hours. As regards paid and unpaid work activities, population spend the same amount of time doing paid and unpaid work (3:08), but considerable gender differences are expressive. So, in unpaid work activities women spend on average a bit more than four hours (4:09), while men spend two hours (2:03) doing unpaid work activities, namely twice less than women.
Table 1. Average time spent on activities by type of day and sex, Republic of Serbia, 2021/2022 (in hours and minutes)
| Weekdays | Weekend days | All days | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | |
| Paid work | 02:57 | 04:43 | 03:48 | 00:58 | 02:00 | 01:28 | 02:23 | 03:57 | 03:08 |
| Unpaid work | 04:02 | 01:56 | 03:01 | 04:26 | 02:22 | 03:26 | 04:09 | 02:03 | 03:08 |
| Study | 00:31 | 00:31 | 00:31 | 00:13 | 00:10 | 00:12 | 00:26 | 00:25 | 00:25 |
| Personal care | 11:20 | 11:06 | 11:13 | 12:08 | 12:03 | 12:06 | 11:34 | 11:22 | 11:28 |
| Free time | 05:08 | 05:43 | 05:25 | 06:15 | 07:23 | 06:48 | 05:27 | 06:11 | 05:49 |
| Other activities | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 | 00:01 |
Table 2. Participation of the population in performing activities, by type of day and sex, Republic of Serbia, 2021/2022 (in percentage)
| Weekdays | Weekend days | All days | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | |
| Paid work | 39.31 | 56.51 | 47.60 | 16.21 | 28.17 | 21.98 | 32.71 | 48.41 | 40.28 |
| Unpaid work | 93.02 | 76.43 | 85.02 | 94.05 | 78.38 | 86.50 | 93.31 | 76.99 | 85.44 |
| Study | 9.45 | 7.95 | 8.73 | 5.67 | 5.77 | 5.72 | 8.37 | 7.33 | 7.87 |
| Personal care | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
| Free time | 98.71 | 98.92 | 98.81 | 99.66 | 99.43 | 99.55 | 98.98 | 99.07 | 99.02 |
| Other activities | 2.77 | 4.21 | 3.46 | 2.54 | 3.78 | 3.14 | 2.71 | 4.08 | 3.37 |
Table 3. Average time of those who performed activities, according by type of day and sex, Republic of Serbia, 2021/2022 (in hours and minutes)
| Weekdays | Weekend days | All days | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | |
| Paid work | 07:31 | 08:22 | 08:00 | 06:00 | 07:06 | 06:41 | 07:18 | 08:09 | 07:48 |
| Unpaid work | 04:20 | 02:31 | 03:33 | 04:43 | 03:01 | 03:58 | 04:27 | 02:40 | 03:40 |
| Study | 05:33 | 06:25 | 05:56 | 03:42 | 03:01 | 03:22 | 05:11 | 05:39 | 05:24 |
| Personal care | 11:20 | 11:06 | 11:13 | 12:08 | 12:03 | 12:06 | 11:34 | 11:22 | 11:28 |
| Free time | 05:12 | 05:47 | 05:29 | 06:16 | 07:26 | 06:50 | 05:30 | 06:15 | 05:52 |
| Other activities | 00:28 | 00:33 | 00:31 | 00:30 | 00:38 | 00:35 | 00:28 | 00:34 | 00:32 |
Methodological explanations
Table 1 presents average time spent on certain activity for all persons in the survey. The calculation is made by dividing the total amount of time spent in certain activity by the number of interviewed persons in the survey.
Table 2 offers the proportion of “doers” for certain activities and presents the participation rate of the interviewed persons that spent some time doing the activity in a day. It is calculated so that the number of “doers” for certain activity is divided by the number of persons in the survey.
Table 3 presents average time for “doers” and refers only to persons doing the activity. It is calculated by dividing all time — for all persons in the survey — spent on the activity by the number of persons who actually spent some time doing the activity.
Here are defined the main groups of activities:
Paid work assumes the time spent doing the main or other/secondary job, lunch break and commuting to and from work, as well as other activities related to work.
Unpaid work assumes cooking meals, cleaning and maintenance of the house, laundry activities, doing repairs in the household, shopping, taking care of children, travelling related to unpaid activities, etc.
Study relates to the time spent attending school or faculty classes, doing homework, learning foreign languages or having driving lessons, travelling and other activities related to study.
Personal care activities include time spent for eating and drinking, sleeping, bathing, dressing oneself, however also having naps, staying in bed due to illness and other personal activities.
Free time means time spent with family or friends, in entertaining, culture and sport, watching TV, leisure time, reading books or newspapers, PC activities, as well as hereto related travels.
Other activities are those concerning unspecified activities and travelling.