American Time Use Survey — 2003 Microdata Files

This page includes links to the 2003 ATUS microdata files and supporting documentation. Researchers can use the ATUS microdata files to produce their own time-use estimates or do other analyses. Each ZIP file contains a data file along with computer programs that will read the data file into SAS, SPSS, and Stata. The data files are in CSV-format (comma-separated values).

The microdata files do not contain time-use estimates. Tables showing time-use estimates for major activity categories, selected detailed activities, and selected demographic and labor force characteristics are available on the ATUS Web site under the headings Economic News Releases and Charts.

About ATUS Data

• How to use ATUS microdata files
• Instructions for downloading ATUS microdata files
• Changes between ATUS 2003 to 2007 data files (PDF)
• Combining multiple years of ATUS data

Basic ATUS Data

2003 Basic ATUS Data Dictionaries (PDF files)

• ATUS 2003 Interview Data Dictionary Describes the Respondent, Roster, Activity, and Who files, and includes names and descriptions of the variables appearing on these files.
• ATUS-CPS 2003 Data Dictionary Describes the ATUS-CPS file and includes names and descriptions of the variables appearing on the file. Variables on the ATUS-CPS file were collected 2 to 5 months before the ATUS interview.
• Census Industry and Occupation codes

2003 Basic ATUS Data Files

• ATUS 2003 Respondent file (zip) (2.1 MB) The Respondent file contains information about ATUS respondents, including their labor force status and earnings.
  UPDATED -- The variable TU06FWGT was added to the Respondent file on June 28, 2007. The variable TU04FWGT was added to the Respondent file on September 20, 2005. For more information, please see Combining multiple years of ATUS data.
  UPDATED -- The respondent file, originally released January 12, 2005, was re-released on May 19, 2005, with corrected data for the weekly earnings variable TRERNWA. No other data were changed. As initially released, TRERNWA was not correct because overtime earnings were omitted from about 300 cases.
• ATUS 2003 Roster file (zip) (0.3 MB) The Roster file contains information about household members and nonhousehold children (under 18) of ATUS respondents. It includes information such as age and sex.
• ATUS 2003 Activity file (zip) (6.3 MB) The Activity file contains information about how ATUS respondents spent their diary day. It includes information such as activity codes, activity start and stop times, and locations.
• ATUS 2003 Activity summary file (zip) (1.7 MB) The Activity summary file contains information about the total time each ATUS respondent spent doing each activity on the diary day.
  UPDATED -- The variable TU06FWGT was added to the Activity summary file on June 28, 2007. For more information, please see Combining multiple years of ATUS data.
• ATUS 2003 Who file (zip) (1.6 MB) The Who file includes codes that indicate who was present during each activity.
• ATUS-CPS 2003 file (zip) (9.1 MB) The ATUS-CPS file contains information about each household member of all individuals selected to participate in ATUS. The information on the ATUS-CPS file was collected 2 to 5 months before the ATUS interview.
• Programs with variable and value labels for use with 2003 data files: SAS, SPSS, SPSS (8 character variable names), and Stata.

Additional ATUS Data

2003 Additional ATUS Data Dictionaries (PDF files)

• ATUS 2003 Survey Methodology Data Dictionary Describes the Case history file and includes names and descriptions of the variables appearing on the file.

2003 Additional ATUS Data Files

• ATUS 2003 Case history file (zip) (0.3 MB) The Case history file contains information about the interview process, such as interviewer identifiers and interview outcome codes.
• ATUS 2003 Replicate weights file I (zip) (74.1 MB) This miscellaneous weights file contains replicate weights for the variables TUFINLWGT and TU04FWGT, as well as base weights.
• ATUS 2003 Replicate weights file II (zip) (23.2 MB) This miscellaneous weights file contains replicate weights for the variable TU06FWGT.
• Programs with variable and value labels for use with 2003 data files: SAS, SPSS, SPSS (8 character variable names), and Stata.

2003 Survey Documentation

• ATUS User's Guide (PDF)
• ATUS Questionnaire (PDF)
• ATUS 2003 Coding Lexicon: no activity examples (PDF)
• ATUS 2003 Coding Lexicon: with activity examples (PDF) (ZIP) -- the zip file contains an Excel file
• ATUS 2003 Coding Rules Manual (PDF)
• ATUS Frequently Used Variables (PDF)

2003 ATUS File Contents

Descriptions of the ATUS-CPS, Respondent, Roster, Activity, and Who data files for: SAS users, SPSS users, and Stata users.

Last Modified Date: June 25, 2008