Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS)

The Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) was first developed in the early 1980s. Professor Jonathan Gershuny, then working at the University of Bath with Sally Jones, observed the potential to harmonise time use datasets collected in the early 1960s through the mid 1980s into a single dataset with common series of background variables and total time spent per day in 41 activities. The original MTUS allowed comparison of British time use data with the 1965 Szalai Multinational Time Budget Study and data from Canada and Denmark. The MTUS since has grown to encompass over 60 datasets from 22 countries, and is now incorporating recent data from the HETUS, ATUS, and other national level time use projects. Professor Gershuny and Dr Kimberly Fisher presently manage the study in collaboration with other time use scholars.

This site provides access to the MTUS data and documentation, and offers advice on the use of this dataset

We have added 15 background variables to the latest (March 2009) release:

1/2) parntid1 & parntid2 (person identifiers of the parents of a diarist for those surveys where multiple members of a household completed diaries and both a child and her or his parent or parents completed diaries);

3) partid (person identifier of the spouse or partner of the diarist if both members of a couple completed diaries);

4) badcase (a variable marking quality diaries from low quality diaries, and identifying the dimensions on which we defined any given diary to be low quality);

5) agekid2 (the actual age of the youngest child in the household);

6) ownhome (whether the household owns or rents their accommodation);

7) computer (whether the household has a computer or internet access at home);

8) vehicle (whether the household has access to non-motorised transport, 1 car or multiple cars);

9) citizen (whether the diarist is a citizen of the country in which she or he completed the diary);

10) occup (occupation of the diarist);

11) sector (whether the diarist works in the public or private sector);

12) carer (whether the diarist looks after a child with a disability or an adult who needs care);

13) rushed (scale of whether the diarist generally feels rushed); and

14) health (self-reported state of health)

15) countreg - The old variable country listed countries in the order in which the first survey was added to an old version of the MTUS. While this variable (country) remains in the MTUS, we have added a new variable, countreg, which lists countries included or that we hope to include in alphabetical order.