Religion and the Allocation of Time in America

Every year the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a national survey, called the American Time Use Survey, in which they collect data on how people spend their time throughout the day. It is an important survey for researchers in economics and other social sciences because its unique data allows them to study a large variety of research questions.

The most recent Time Use Survey (2023) reveals some interesting facts. For example, on average Americans spend:

• 9.84 hours/day on personal care and sleep.
• 1.20 hours/day and drinking.
• 1.92 hours/day doing household activities.
• 0.66 hours/day shopping.

You can see some summary charts here, but more better details are in some published tables here. It is there that you can get specific information about time spent in religious activities.

The civilian population 15 years and older spend, on average, about 0.11 hours/day on "religious activities." That is about 6.6 minutes per day. About 60% of that time is spent "attending religious services," and the other 40% is spent "participating in religious practices."

The average time spent on religious activities per day is higher for women (0.14 hours) than men (0.09 hours), which is consistent with the standard finding that women are more religious than men in the U.S.

Though of course there is some variance across people with some spending a lot of time and others spending no time on religious activities. For those who participate in religious activities, the average amount of time spent in religious activities is 1.50 hours/day.

Here's a table with a few comparisons:

Activity	Avg hrs/day, entire population	Avg hrs/day, participants only
Religious and spiritual activities	0.11	1.50
Volunteering	0.10	2.11
Socializing and communicating	0.57	1.96
Relaxing and leisure	4.00 (TV= 2.67)	4.51 (TV = 3.62)
Sports, exercise, and recreation	0.34	1.57
Telephone (calls, mail, email)	0.16	0.90

On the surface, the numbers for religious and spiritual activities seem small compared to the other non-work, not-sleep categories in the table. But keep in mind that a lot volunteering may be religiously-motivated or organized through religious groups, some time spent socializing or playing sports may be with members of one's congregation, and communication may also be with other religious group members. So even if time spent on direct religious practice seems small, there are many activities that have a religious dimension even if not labelled as such in the survey.

Nonetheless, there are a lot of activities that vie for people's limited time, and religious groups are always competing not just with other religious groups but also the many other non-religious "distractions" in life. In fact, it might be the little decisions about religion that people face every day that really determine the value and impact of religion in their lives.

Here are some questions for you to think about:

• Which non-religious activities pose the largest threats to religious activities?
• How do you think the cost and benefits of these non-religious activities has changed in recent years?
• How do you think the answer to the above question might depend on your age?