American Time Use Survey — Activity Coding Lexicons and Coding Rules Manuals

The ATUS Activity Coding Lexicon is a 3-tiered classification system with 17 first-tier categories. Each of the first-tier categories has two additional levels of detail. Respondents' reported activities are assigned 6-digit activity codes based on this classification system. Activity codes are periodically evaluated and updated prior to the start of each year’s data collection. This page contains links to the ATUS Activity Coding Lexicons and Coding Rules Manuals.

ATUS Single-Year Activity Coding Lexicons:

Differences between the 2003 to 2016 single-year lexicons (PDF)

No activity examples (PDFs) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) (2010) (2009) (2008) (2007) (2006) (2005) (2004) (2003)

With activity examples (PDFs) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) (2010) (2009) (2008) (2007) (2006) (2005) (2004) (2003)

With activity examples (XLS) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) (2010) (2009) (2008) (2007) (2006) (2005) (2004) (2003)

ATUS Multi-Year Activity Coding Lexicons:

Multi-Year Activity Coding Lexicons (PDFs) (2003-2016) (2003-2015)—List of ATUS multi-year activity codes. The multi-year ATUS Activity Coding Lexicons contain Activity Codes unique to the multi-year Activity and Activity Summary files and should not be used with single-year files.

ATUS Coding Rules Manuals

ATUS Coding Rules Manuals (PDFs) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) (2010) (2009) (2008) (2007) (2006) (2005) (2004) (2003)—The ATUS Coding Rules Manuals provide guidance on how to code the activities collected in the ATUS time diary. These manuals are used by ATUS staff when coding activities.

Last Modified Date: July 6, 2017