Baubles, bangles, and beads: time spent on hobbies

Have you ever made a bauble, a bangle, or maybe a beaded bracelet? Across the country a wide variety of things fill our spare time, not the least of which is arts and crafts as a hobby. Hobbies sometimes require certain skills and, like most human endeavors, get easier with practice. Some people even take classes and do homework to learn about their personal interests and improve their skills. In recognition of World Hobby Month, let’s look at the time spent on a few hobbies and activities.

Participants in many hobbies spent well over an hour enjoying their elected task on days they chose to participate in 2024. People doing arts and crafts as a hobby spent over 2 hours (125 minutes) on days they engaged in some creative time. For hobbies other than arts, crafts, and collecting, participants spent over 2 hours and 30 minutes (151 minutes) on days they participated in their chosen activity. Counted together, taking a class (119 minutes) and doing research or homework for a personal interest (96 minutes) clocked in at 3 hours and 34 minutes, approximately the length of two feature-length films. Of course, not every hobby needs to involve special expertise or training. Arts and crafts could be as simple as dyeing some eggs or as complex as painting a landscape.

These data (and many more) are from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). To learn more, if drilling down into data is your default diversion, see How to use ATUS microdata files.