Everyday life in Finland

Summary

Statistics Finland conducted its third Time Use Survey in 1999-2000. The respondents to the Survey recorded their time use over two days at 10-minute accuracy. The data were collected from a sample of households and extended to all seasons of the year. This report describes the everyday life of the Finns in the light of these time use diaries. The daily life of the Finns is depicted not only under the pressures imposed by studying, gainful employment and domestic chores but also during unscheduled holiday times and times spent on free-time residences. The examination also extends to the way transition from gainful employment to retirement changes the rhythm of daily life. The respondents were persons aged 10 or over resident in Finland. The survey data cover the use of time on 10,561 days in Finland.

During schooldays, studying takes one-quarter of the time of comprehensive and upper secondary school pupils. Over one-half of school pupils are already attending lessons before nine in the morning.

On average, comprehensive school pupils aged 10 to 13 use well over nine hours for sleep during schooldays, while those attending the upper stage of comprehensive school and upper secondary school sleep good eight hours per day. Sleep is caught up with during free days, when almost 10.5 hours are used for sleep.

Television viewing continues to be the most popular way to spend free time among school pupils, who spend one-third of their leisure time at the television. Television is watched for two hours on schooldays and for over three hours during days off school.

Sports and outdoor activities have retained their popularity in school pupils' free time use, and almost one hour is spent on physical exercise during schooldays. The youngest school pupils spend 90 minutes on sports and outdoor activities during their free days, but upper secondary school pupils do not increase the time they spend on these activities during free days. School-age boys take clearly more physical exercise that school-age girls do. As with physical exercise, the time used for socialising with friends and family amounts to around one hour during schooldays and to 90 minutes during days off school.

The length of time spent at the computer is 30 to 40 minutes during schooldays and 50 minutes during days off. Most of this time is used for playing computer games. The vast majority of schoolchildren spend less than two hours per day at the computer. The time spent at the computer is distinctly shorter than that used for physical exercise, let alone that spent watching television.

Shopping and cleaning are the commonest types of domestic work schoolchildren do. The difference between the genders in the performing of domestic work becomes apparent already at the upper stage of comprehensive school, where girls overtake boys in the amount of time spent on domestic work. Gainful employment is still rare among schoolchildren, although eight per cent of upper secondary school pupils had spent time on gainful work during schooldays.

Where both spouses of the family are gainfully employed, their total workload of 120 hours per week is divided almost equally between the spouses. Total workload refers to the combined total time used for gainful employment and domestic work. The division of work between the genders has remained unchanged in that the man spends ever more time on gainful employment while the wife does more domestic work.

The division of work changes when the spouse of a gainfully employed woman exits from working life, becomes unemployed or retires. The man then participates more in domestic work than when he was employed. The most conventional division of work prevails in families where the man is gainfully employed and the wife is unemployed. Then the wife does the lion's share of domestic work.

Domestic work is still divided into traditional "men's and women's jobs". Heating and water, construction and repairs, as well as vehicle repair and maintenance are clearly men's jobs. Men participate least in caring for textiles and baking. The division of domestic work becomes somewhat less clear when the man stays at home and the wife goes out to work. The man then contributes more not only to the conventional "men's domestic jobs" but also to food preparation and cleaning. Childcare is decidedly the responsibility of women. A gainfully employed wife uses almost two-thirds of the total time spent on childcare, irrespective of whether her husband goes out to work not.

Parents of small children take the time required for domestic work and childcare from their time on almost all free time activities: physical exercise, reading, television viewing, hobbies and socialising with friends. They would like to have more time for being with the children, doing other domestic work and for physical exercise.

The vast majority, or 45 per cent, of the annual leave days of the employed population are taken in July. August is the second most popular holiday month while 29 per cent of holidays are taken outside the summer months.

Just over one half of holidays are spent at home. More time is used for sleeping during a holiday week, especially by men who sleep shorter nights during the working week than women do. A couple of hours more per day are used for domestic work during a holiday week than during a working week, and even during weekends. Sports and outdoor activities, as well as meeting friends and relatives also increase considerably during holidays, whereas television is watched less on holidays than during other times.

Time is used differently during summer and winter holidays. Although as a rule physical exercise hobbies liven up in the summer, even more time is spent on sports and outdoor activities during winter holidays than in summer holidays. The most popular forms of physical exercise in winter are cross-country and downhill skiing, or walking. Free time is spent more socially in the summer than in the winter. Television is watched more during winter holidays than during summer holidays but distinctly less than during weekends.

Compared to a working week, men increase the time they spend on domestic work during the summer holiday more than women do, meaning that domestic work is then slightly more evenly divided between men and women than during normal working weeks. This applies to household work but not to construction and maintenance work, which remains the men's domain even during holidays.

People get up a couple of hours later during days off than during workdays and activities are more evenly timed along the day. The strong role of television as the regulator of the daily rhythm of time use surprises, however. The timings of television watching are almost identical during workdays and days off, and people do no stay up late watching television although they go to bed slightly later during holidays than during workdays.

Finland is the European leader where owning and spending time at summer cottages is concerned. The number of summer cottages is growing and they are ever better equipped. Summer cottages have become free-time residences suitable for year-round living and 25 per cent more time is spent at them than at the end of the 1980s.

Families do not acquire summer cottages when the children are small. Only one family in five with under school-age children, but more than one-third of families with school-age children and almost one half of cohabiting of married couples aged 45 or over have the possibility to use a summer cottage. The most avid summer cottage dwellers are men of pensionable age.

Very little gainful work is done at summer cottages. Thus far, free-time residences have not become teleworking posts, but time at them is spent on domestic and maintenance work. Especially men use more time than usual for domestic work during days at the cottage. Diverse maintenance jobs, such as gardening, heating and water, as well as construction and repairs are more plentiful at the cottage. Men do more domestic work on days off spent at the cottage than on days off on average. Sauna is an essential part of summer cottage life, and on average people take a sauna bath every second day while at their summer cottages.

Men are drawn to the countryside by fishing. Women prefer to take swims and walks. Equal numbers of men and women like berry and mushroom picking. During the summer, time at the cottage is used for seeing friends or relatives while at other times the cottage is used for enjoying the solitude and peace of the countryside. Television watching is an activity reserved for evenings spent at the cottage especially during wintertime.

The closing Chapter of this report examines how transition from working life to retirement affects time use with the help of comparisons between employed persons aged 55 to 64 and persons who have retired from working life on the grounds of unemployment or age. Retired people use more than one half of the extra time released from gainful work for diverse free time activities, one third for domestic work and the remainder for sleeping and eating. After retirement, people use more time for physical exercise, activity in organisations, socialising with friends, television watching and reading. Men spend as much as two hours and women an hour or so more on domestic work. Women increase the time they spend on household work while men use more time for maintenance work and food preparation.

Actual old-age pensioners, that is, persons aged and 65, spend roughly the same amount - young pensioners even more - time on sports and outdoor activities as the population on average. They are also keen participants in the activities of organisations and voluntary work, and helpers of other households, women helping especially grandchildren and men neighbours and friends. Almost one pensioner in fours had done voluntary work.

Along with age, the helping of others decreases and the pensioners themselves become recipients of help, especially in cleaning and running of errands in which help is most needed. Almost one pensioner in two has a chronic illness that impairs the performing of everyday tasks. The time used for domestic work decreases with persons aged 75 or over, more clearly with men than with women. Men and women in this age group use about equal amounts of time for domestic work.

On average, pensioners spend 20 hours of the day at home. One person in two aged 65 or over lives with his or her spouse. Living alone grows more common with age, which also means that the time spent alone increases, especially with women. However, this does not mean that the time spent on actual socialising wanes off, for the time women aged 75 or over use for socialising with friends averages 60 minutes per day, when telephone conversations are included.

The daily time use rhythm of pensioner is quite similar to that of the rest of the population. In the morning they get up at the same time as other people. While the working age population are at work, pensioners do their domestic chores and run errands. Like others, they settle in front of the television in the early evening but then go to bed slightly earlier than their juniors.

Updated 22.4.2004