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American Time Use Survey

ATUS Methods Overview

An in-depth guide on the concepts we measure and how we create estimates.
Provides information on the history and development of the ATUS, as well as details on data collection and the methods used to construct estimates, including guidance on how to construct your own estimates.
Resources for more details about the ATUS, including documentation that will aid you when working with the data files.
The Activity Coding Lexicons provide information about ATUS activity codes including definitions of the 2-, 4-, and 6-digit activity codes and examples of commonly reported activities.
The ATUS Coding Rules Manuals provide guidance on how ATUS staff code the activities collected in the ATUS time diary.
The questionnaires includes most, but not all, questions asked in the survey.
Provides some hints about useful variables and where to find them on the microdata files.
This document details any such changes made to ATUS survey methods and data files over the years.