1. UNECE Collection of Methodological Experience with Time-Use Surveys
Andres Vikat
Eurostat Working Group on Time-Use Surveys
Luxembourg, 11 November 2014

2. Guidelines for Harmonizing Time-Use Surveys
Help understand importance
Guide implementation
Improve comparability
Key areas:
Unpaid work and non-market production
Well-being
Gender equality

3. Follow-up
Collection of methodological material www1.unece.org/stat/platform/display/countrytus
Light surveys
Use of novel methods
Measurement of subjective well-being
Guidelines for valuing unpaid household service work
Task force established. 8 countries, 4 organizations

4. Light Diaries

5. Experience from 8 Countries
Colombia 2013
Netherlands 2012
Japan 2011
Sweden 2011
Finland 2010
Mexico 2009
Australia 2006
United Kingdom 2005

6. Coverage National Exceptions Finland: Finnish-speaking population
United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland
Netherlands: light diary for partners only

7. Age 10+ Colombia, Japan, Netherlands (partners only) 12+ Mexico
15+ Australia
15-84 Sweden
16+ United Kingdom
25-64 Finland

8. Sample Size, Response Rate, Trial/ Final Survey
Country
Households
Persons
Response rate, %
Trial/ final
Netherlands
632 40
Trial
Finland
1000 17
Sweden 52
Australia
1500 85
United Kingdom
4941 59
Final
Mexico
17 000
Each in hh
Colombia
43 500 99
Japan 96

9. Diary Days One Two Seven
Australia (24 h), Colombia, Finland, United Kingdom
Two
Japan, Mexico, Sweden
Seven
Netherlands

10. Number of Activity Categories
Country
Activity categories
Colombia 93
Mexico 76
Sweden 30
United Kingdom
Japan 20
Australia
12 (+30)
Netherlands 10

11. Finland Low response rate, 17%
Most respondents could not stick to just one main activity
Comparability with full survey good, except for domestic work and rest/ sleep, underestimated in the light diary
Differences also in detailed categories
Possible to isolate activities for Household Satellite Accounts

12. Sweden
Response rate higher than in full survey (52% vs 42%) - lottery incentive
Well comparable with full survey
Underestimation of employment (16 min), travelling (14 min), care (8 min)
Overestimation of free time by 35 min
Constraints to 30 main activities may pose risks

13. Modern Technologies
September 21, 2018

14. Experience from 2 Countries
Netherlands 2013
Japan 2011

15. Survey Characteristics
Japan
Netherlands
Technology
Web-based reporting
Smartphone app
Coverage
National
Age
10+
16+
Sample size
10 000
1088
Diary days 2
2 (week + weekend)
Response rate:
94%
54%
Reporting of activities
In own words

16. Dutch Report
Positive evaluation of technical feasibility: smartphones can be used
Inexperienced users reported more episodes and updated their diary more often than the smartphone owners. Borrowed smartphone -> felt obliged to fill in accurately
Smartphone owners responded to more of the questions in the Experience Sampling Method or beeper-method
Random pop-up questions showed actual fluctuations in moods during the day, which cannot be seen based on a general estimation at the end of a fieldwork day
Respondents enjoyed
Reality mining potential: camera, GPS tracking, receipt scanning, outside temperatures, music recognition
Special app has great advantage over accessing a web page
Caution: privacy

17. Subjective Well-being
September 21, 2018

18. Responses from 11 Countries
United Kingdom 2015
Norway 2011
Italy
Finland 2010
Germany 2013
France 2010
Netherlands 2013
Hungary 2010
Poland 2013
Australia 2006
Republic of Moldova

19. Approach to the Measurement of Subjective Well-being
Countries
Questions on general issues such as health, satisfaction with time spent
AUS FRA GBR HUN MDA NLD POL
Questions on time pressure or stress
AUS DEU HUN MDA NLD
Most pleasant activity of the day
DEU FIN NOR
Any particularly positive/ negative activity in the day
NOR
Pleasant/ unpleasant about each activity
FRA GBR POL
Ranking of feelings -3 … +3 for each activity
ITA
Paying for gardening if money wasn’t an issue
AUS

20. Item Response Rate of Questions in Individual Questionnaire, %
France 99
Republic of Moldova
Italy
90+
Germany
47 … 100
Hungary
40 … 100
United Kingdom
promising
Germany 47% For which activities do you wish to have had more time?
Hungary 40% Question on restrictions to those with chronic illness

21. Diary Response Rate; Time Spent on Diary
Not known or minimal effect compared to a diary without subjective well-being questions

22. Provisional Conclusions
Emerging experience with light surveys somewhat encouraging, but no replacement to full-scale surveys
Great potential of new technologies
Subjective measures indispensable for measuring well-being; analysis of the utility of assessing each activity vs summary questions required
(No in-depth analysis yet)

23. What Next?
Collection of further experience, including more in-depth reports
To have clearer conclusions for HETUS, specific pilot studies may be needed