Americans Spend About 100 More Minutes a Day at Home Than 20 Years Ago

Americans did not go back to their old routines after the pandemic. In 2022, the average American adult spent about 1 hour and 39 minutes more at home each day than in 2003.

The figures come from Princeton sociologist Patrick Sharkey, who analyzed the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey. During the pandemic in 2020, time at home was about 130 minutes above 2003, and it has come down only a little since.

What gets less attention is that the trend started well before the pandemic. By 2019, time at home was already about half an hour above 2003, and the rise showed up in almost every group and every kind of activity. Work, shopping, entertainment and socializing were all increasingly done at home. The pandemic did not create the trend. It pushed it forward by several years at once.

That is a long-term shift for city economies. Some of the lost foot traffic at malls, restaurants and transit systems is structural, not just a temporary post-pandemic lull. Sharkey also found that people reported lower happiness and meaning during time spent at home, though that is a correlation and does not show that staying home makes people unhappy.

Source: Sociological Science, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Image: @Hedgeye)