Indicator 5.4.1 Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location

Indicator 5.4.1: Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location

Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

UN Statistics Division (UNSD)

Definition:

This indicator is defined as the proportion of time spent in a day on unpaid domestic and care work by men and women. Unpaid domestic and care work refers to activities related to the provision of services for own final use by household members, or by family members living in other households. These activities are listed in the International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics 2016 (ICATUS 2016)^[2] under the major divisions “3. Unpaid domestic services for household and family members” and “4. Unpaid caregiving services for household and family members”.

Concepts:

Unpaid domestic work refers to activities including food and meals management preparation, cleaning and maintaining of own dwelling and surroundings, , do-it-yourself decoration, maintenance and repair of personal and household goods, care and maintenance of textiles and footwear, household management, pet care, shopping for own household and family members and travel related to previous listed unpaid domestic services.

Unpaid care work refers to activities related to childcare and instruction,, care of the sick, elderly, or disabled household and family members, and travel related to these unpaid caregiving services..

Concepts and definitions for this indicator are based on the following international standards:

• International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics 2016 (ICATUS 2016)
• System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008)
• The Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment, and labour underutilization, adopted by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) at its 19th Session in 2013

As much as possible, statistics compiled by UNSD are based on the International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics 2016 (ICATUS 2016), which classifies activities undertaken by persons during the survey period. ICATUS 2016 was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission for use as an international statistical classification at its 48th session, 7-10 March 2017.

Percent (%) (proportion of time in a day)

Most data on time use are collected through dedicated time use surveys or from time-use modules integrated into multi-purpose household surveys, conducted at the national level.

Data on time-use can be collected through a 24-hour diary (light diary) or a stylized questionnaire. With diaries, respondents are asked to report on what activity they were performing when they started the day, what activity followed and the time that activity began and ended (in most of the cases based on fixed intervals), and so forth through the 24 hours of the day. Stylized time-use questions ask respondents to recall the amount of time they allocated to a certain activity over a specified period, such as a day or a week.

National Statistical Offices

Time use statistics have been used: (1) to provide a measure of the quality of life or general well-being of individuals and households; (2) to offer a more comprehensive measurement of all forms of work, including unpaid household service work; (3) to produce data relevant for monitoring gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and are essential inputs for the policy and political dialogue on gender equality.

International comparability of time-use statistics is limited by several factors, including:

1. Diary versus stylized time-use survey. Data on time-use can be collected through a 24-hour diary (light diary) or a stylized questionnaire. With diaries, respondents are asked to report on what activity they were performing when they started the day, what activity followed, the time that activity began and ended, and so forth through the 24 hours of the day. Stylized time-use questions ask respondents to recall the amount of time they allocated to a certain activity over a specified period, such as a day or week. Data obtained from these two different data collection methods are usually not comparable, and even data collected with different stylized questions might not be comparable given that the level of detail asked about activities performed might differ from one instrument to another, thus impacting the total time spent on a given activity.
2. Time-use activity classification. Regional and national classifications of time-use activities may differ from the The International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics 2016 (ICATUS 2016), resulting in data that are not comparable across countries.
3. Time-use data presented refer to the “main activity” only. Any “secondary activity” performed simultaneously with the main activity is not reflected in the average times shown. For instance, a woman may be cooking and looking after a child simultaneously. For countries reporting cooking as the main activity, time spent caring for children is not accounted for and reflected in the statistics. This may affect the international comparability of data on time spent caring for children; it may also underestimate the time women spend on this activity.
4. Different target age populations used by countries and age groups used also make time use data difficult to compare across countries.

Data presented for this indicator are expressed as a proportion of time in a day. In the case when the reference period is one week, weekly data is averaged over seven days of the week to obtain the daily average time.

Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work is calculated by dividing the daily average number of hours spent on unpaid domestic and care work by 24 hours.

Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work ($Indicator\mathrm{\ }5.4.1$) is calculated as:

$Indicator\mathrm{\ }5.4.1=\frac{Daily\mathrm{\ }number\mathrm{\ }of\mathrm{\ }hours\mathrm{\ }spent\mathrm{\ }on\mathrm{\ }domestic\mathrm{\ }work+Daily\mathrm{\ }number\mathrm{\ }of\mathrm{\ }hours\mathrm{\ }spent\mathrm{\ }on\mathrm{\ }care\mathrm{\ }work}{24}\times 100$

where,

$Daily\mathrm{\ }number\mathrm{\ }of\mathrm{\ }hours\mathrm{\ }spent\mathrm{\ }on\mathrm{\ }relevant\mathrm{\ }activities=\frac{\begin{array}{c}Total\mathrm{\ }number\mathrm{\ }of\mathrm{\ }hours\mathrm{\ }spent\mathrm{\ }by\mathrm{\ }\\ the\mathrm{\ }population\mathrm{\ }on\mathrm{\ }relevant\mathrm{\ }activities\end{array}}{\begin{array}{c}Total\mathrm{\ }population\mathrm{\ }(regardless\mathrm{\ }of\mathrm{\ }whether\mathrm{\ }\\ they\mathrm{\ }participated\mathrm{\ }in\mathrm{\ }the\mathrm{\ }activity)\end{array}}$

If data on time spent are weekly, data are averaged over seven days of the week to obtain daily time spent.

Average number of hours spent on unpaid domestic and care work derives from time-use statistics that are collected through stand-alone time-use surveys or a time-use module in multi-purpose household surveys. Data on time-use may be summarized and presented as either (1) average time spent for participants (in each activity) only or (2) average time spent for all populations of a certain age (total relevant population). In the former type of average, the total time spent by the individuals who performed the activity is divided by the number of persons who performed it (participants). In the latter type of averages, the total time is divided by the total relevant population (or a sub-group thereof), regardless of whether people performed the activity or not.

SDG indicator 5.4.1 is calculated based on the average number of hours spent on unpaid domestic and unpaid care work for the total relevant population. This type of measure can be used to compare groups and assess changes over time. Differences among groups or over time may be due to a difference (or change) in the proportion of those participating in the specific activity or a difference (or change) in the amount of time spent by participants, or both.

2024-07-29

UN Statistics Division (UNSD) and UN WOMEN

Time-use information collected and analyzed around the world has shown that there is a very close link between economic poverty (SDG 1) and time poverty; most of health care is provided by households (SDG 3) and these activities are socially allocated to women in general; the provision of early childhood education services (SDG 4) not only prepares children for primary education but also frees up time for their caregivers; the sexual division of labour is a structural challenge of gender inequalities (SDG 5, 8 and 10); and the lack of services such as drinkable water, electricity or transport infrastructure increases unpaid work time and disproportionately affects women (SDG 6, 7, 9,11). Please see the section “Time-use data crucial for monitoring the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: going beyond SDG 5” of the Policy relevance: Making the case for time-use data collections in support of SDGs monitoring paper submitted to the SC of 2020^[1].