Data
Who fills your day?
By your 30s, a partner and kids fill the day. Friends and parents fade.
At 30, Americans average about 30 min a day with friends, about half what they had at 15. Here are the average hours a day with each, at every age.
Numbers last updated October 2026. We refresh them each summer, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a new year.
Porcupine’s analysis of the American Time Use Survey, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which hasn’t reviewed these pages. 22,363 one-day diaries, 2023–2025. Shading shows each line’s margin of error.
See the numbers
| Age | Partner | Parents | Friends | Kids | Coworkers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15–19 | 5 min | 2 hr 10 min | 1 hr | under 5 min | 45 min |
| 20–24 | 50 min | 1 hr 20 min | 45 min | 35 min | 2 hr 35 min |
| 25–29 | 2 hr 10 min | 35 min | 35 min | 1 hr 25 min | 2 hr 40 min |
| 30–34 | 3 hr 10 min | 25 min | 30 min | 2 hr 55 min | 2 hr 15 min |
| 35–39 | 3 hr 20 min | 20 min | 25 min | 3 hr 40 min | 2 hr 30 min |
| 40–44 | 3 hr 15 min | 15 min | 15 min | 3 hr 35 min | 2 hr 10 min |
| 45–49 | 3 hr 5 min | 20 min | 20 min | 2 hr 45 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 50–54 | 3 hr | 15 min | 15 min | 1 hr 30 min | 2 hr 15 min |
| 55–59 | 3 hr 15 min | 15 min | 20 min | 45 min | 2 hr |
| 60–64 | 3 hr 20 min | 10 min | 15 min | 20 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 65–69 | 4 hr 5 min | 5 min | 20 min | 20 min | 40 min |
| 70–74 | 4 hr 5 min | 5 min | 20 min | 15 min | 15 min |
| 75–79 | 4 hr 15 min | under 5 min | 20 min | 15 min | 5 min |
| 80+ | 3 hr 30 min | under 5 min | 20 min | 25 min | under 5 min |
Average a day for everyone that age, single or not. Hover or tap the chart for each margin of error.
Find people like you
Pick a country, an age, kids and work.
What the numbers show
23 min
People who live with a partner spend 5 hr 10 min a day with them. About 23 min of it is mainly talking.
What they do in that time, on average a day.
This counts the main thing people wrote down, so talk over dinner counts as eating. Parents with a child at home: 20 min of 5 hr 20 min with their kids is mainly talking.
1 hr 10 min
Parents of young kids get about 1 hr 10 min a day with their partner without the kids there.
Parents living with a partner and their own child under 18. “Just the two of them” means no child of theirs was there, so it includes the hours after bedtime.
30%
At 8 p.m., 30% of Americans are with a partner. Work hours belong to coworkers.
The share of all Americans 15 and older with each kind of person, through the day. Sleep and getting ready aren’t counted.
See the numbers
| Time | Coworkers | Partner | Kids | Friends | Alone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 a.m. | 4% | 3% | 3% | 0% | 16% |
| 8 a.m. | 13% | 9% | 6% | 1% | 34% |
| 10 a.m. | 16% | 12% | 7% | 2% | 43% |
| Noon | 14% | 14% | 8% | 3% | 45% |
| 2 p.m. | 15% | 14% | 8% | 3% | 45% |
| 4 p.m. | 11% | 17% | 10% | 3% | 45% |
| 6 p.m. | 4% | 29% | 15% | 4% | 39% |
| 8 p.m. | 3% | 30% | 13% | 4% | 36% |
| 10 p.m. | 1% | 13% | 4% | 2% | 23% |
| Midnight | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 7% |
The share of all Americans 15 and older with each kind of person in the half hour starting then.
In both countries, time with coworkers feels the least good, and time with friends and family among the best.
How people rated the time they spent with each kind of person. Each country asked its own way, so compare the order, not the numbers.
United States, 2021
How happy, from 0 to 6
Canada, 2022–23
How pleasant, from 1 to 5
Americans also felt most stressed with coworkers. Time with coworkers is mostly time at work, so the rating is partly about the work. The US ratings are from 2021, during the pandemic.
See the numbers
| With | United States (0 to 6) | Canada (1 to 5) |
|---|---|---|
| Alone | 4.1 (±0.1) | 3.9 (±0.0) |
| Partner | 4.6 (±0.1) | 4.2 (±0.0) |
| Kids | 4.9 (±0.1) | 4.0 (±0.1) |
| Parents | 4.5 (±0.2) | 4.2 (±0.1) |
| Other family | 4.8 (±0.1) | 4.3 (±0.1) |
| Friends | 4.8 (±0.2) | 4.4 (±0.1) |
| Coworkers | 3.8 (±0.2) | 3.6 (±0.1) |
−55%
Americans spend 55% less time with friends than in 2003: 27 min a day, down from 1 hr. It isn’t just men.
See the numbers
| Year | Everyone | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 1 hr | 55 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 2004 | 1 hr | 55 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 2005 | 55 min | 50 min | 1 hr |
| 2006 | 50 min | 50 min | 55 min |
| 2007 | 50 min | 50 min | 55 min |
| 2008 | 50 min | 45 min | 55 min |
| 2009 | 50 min | 50 min | 55 min |
| 2010 | 55 min | 50 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 2011 | 55 min | 50 min | 1 hr |
| 2012 | 55 min | 50 min | 1 hr |
| 2013 | 55 min | 50 min | 1 hr |
| 2014 | 50 min | 45 min | 55 min |
| 2015 | 50 min | 45 min | 50 min |
| 2016 | 45 min | 45 min | 50 min |
| 2017 | 40 min | 35 min | 45 min |
| 2018 | 40 min | 40 min | 40 min |
| 2019 | 35 min | 35 min | 35 min |
| 2021 | 25 min | 25 min | 25 min |
| 2022 | 25 min | 25 min | 25 min |
| 2023 | 25 min | 25 min | 25 min |
| 2024 | 25 min | 25 min | 30 min |
| 2025 | 25 min | 25 min | 30 min |
Average a day with friends. 2020 isn’t counted, since the survey stopped for two months.
Common questions
How much time do people spend with other people each day?
Americans 15 and older average about 7 hr 20 min a day with other people and 6 hr 45 min alone, counting every day of the week. The rest is sleep, washing and dressing, when the survey doesn’t ask who was there.
Who do people spend the most time with?
A partner, for most adults. People who live with one average about 5 hr 10 min a day with them. Parents with a child at home average about 5 hr 20 min with their kids, and people who work spend hours with coworkers.
Where do these numbers come from?
From one-day diaries in the American Time Use Survey, run by the US Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Statistics Canada’s Time Use Survey. Porcupine works out the averages and their margins of error.
How often are the numbers updated?
Each summer, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a new year of diaries. They were last updated in October 2026.
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More from the data
- How much time do couples spend together?5 hr 10 min a day, and how much of it is talking
- How much time do people spend with friends?Down 55% since 2003, for men and women alike
- How much of your time with your parents is behind you?Pick your age to see your share
How we counted
- Each person in the survey writes down one day, hour by hour, and who was with them: in the same room at home, or with them when out. Calls, texts and video chats don’t count, and nobody is asked who was there while they slept, washed or dressed.
- Every number is an average from a sample, weighted to stand for people 15 and older living in their own homes, so each comes with a margin of error. Hover or tap a chart to see it. Numbers too uncertain to trust are left out.
More on how we counted
- Time can count twice: a dinner with a partner and the kids counts for both.
- The lifetime chart compares people of different ages today, not one life followed over the years.
- “By the clock” shows the share of all Americans 15 and older, single or not, with each kind of person in each half hour. “How it feels” uses the US survey’s 2021 well-being module, about 20,000 activities people rated for how happy and stressed they felt, and Canada’s 1 to 5 rating of how pleasant each activity was. Canada’s survey also asks who was there during sleep and personal care; those hours are left out here, as for the United States.
- In the tool, Canada’s “Children at home” are any children living with them, parents count with parents-in-law and coworkers with classmates. The two countries’ surveys ask in different ways and in different years, so compare the patterns within each country rather than the numbers between them.
- Source: Porcupine’s analysis of the American Time Use Survey, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which hasn’t reviewed these pages. 2025 has no diaries from October, when a federal shutdown stopped the survey. Adapted from Statistics Canada, Time Use Survey 2022, public use microdata file, under the Statistics Canada Open Licence. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
These pages are general information, not professional advice.