June 27, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Household activities in 2007

On an average day in 2007, 83 percent of women and 66 percent of men spent some time doing household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management.

[Chart data—TXT]

On the days that they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.7 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.2 hours.

On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework—such as cleaning or doing laundry—compared with 52 percent of women. Thirty-seven percent of men did food preparation or cleanup compared with 64 percent of women.

The data in this report are from the American Time Use Survey. To learn more, see "American Time Use Survey—2007 Results," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL 08-0859.

Related TED article:

• Average hours that men and women worked in 2007