European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)
EIGE
European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 215 7444
February 2026
The data is based on the 2nd wave of EIGE’s ‘Survey of gender gaps in unpaid care, individual and social activities’. The survey was carried out in all 27 Member States of the European Union with a total sample size of 65 202 respondents aged 16-74. Fieldwork was conducted between October and December 2024.
Data were collected via Computer Assisted Web Interviews (CAWI) using established online access panels. Further information (including a technical report) about the survey can be found here [add when published].
The survey collected data on the use of time spent on unpaid activities by people aged 16-74 in the EU. The questionnaire covered five key thematic areas:
In addition, it explored topics including transport use, digital tools and eco-friendly considerations in informal care, as well as respondents’ view on gender roles.
Level of education. Responses are based on the ISCED 2011 classification of eight education levels.
Informal care refers to unpaid care activities for family members, relatives, neighbours, or friends (including children) who have needed support as a result of mental, physical frailty, disability, or old age for at least 3 months. Informal care concerns daily living activities (e.g. dressing, showering, eating, moving around, using the toilet) and key activities of daily living (e.g. grocery shopping, preparing meals, managing money, and managing housework).
Long-term care consists of a range of services and assistance for people, which may also be children, who, as a result of mental and/or physical frailty and/or disability over an extended period of time, depend on help with daily living activities and/or are in need of some permanent nursing care. Informal care concerns daily living activities (e.g. bathing, dressing, eating, getting in and out of bed or a chair, moving around, using the toilet) and instrumental activities of daily living (e.g. grocery shopping, preparing meals, managing money, and managing housework).
Childcare refers to unpaid care of children aged less than 25, including parental childcare, grandparenting, and any other forms of childcare outside of family care. Childcare includes personal care, assistance with school tasks, managing children’s activities, leisure, supervision, and emotional support. It does not cover long-term care (for children) related to long-standing health problems and/or disabilities.
Housework refers to activities that people do without being paid, such as grocery shopping, housework chores (cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc.), financial and administrative matters (paying bills, etc.), management and planning (preparing shopping lists, planning meals, etc.), house and general maintenance tasks (gardening, etc.).
Work-life balance is understood as the ability to effectively manage and allocate time and energy between paid work and domestic tasks, caregiving for dependent relatives, extracurricular responsibilities, and other important life priorities.
Well-being refers to an individual’s overall perception of their health and quality of life, commonly assessed through self-reported health.
Mental health involves the capacity to manage stress, maintain relationships, and function in daily life, and is shaped by personal, social, and structural factors.
Leisure refers to time spent outside of paid and unpaid work. Leisure activities are sport, religious, cultural activities, relaxing, meeting family and friends, sightseeing, holidays, watching TV, listening to the radio, and hobbies. Leisure excludes volunteering and life sustaining activities (e.g. personal care, eating, sleeping, visiting doctor).
Volunteering refers to unpaid activities where someone gives their time to help a not-for-profit organisation or an individual they are not related to. Volunteering includes being engaged in cultural, educational, sporting, charitable activities, distributing food, teaching, medical support, animal care, art and music, environmental work, support fundraising, donations, etc. Political activities refer to running or helping a political campaign, distributing campaign material, signing a petition, protesting, contacting officials, etc.
Gender attitudes are understood as individuals’ views and beliefs towards the roles that women and men have in society, which act as both micro-level determinants of the division of tasks within a household and macro-level determinants of the contextual impact on gender differences in time (i.e. societal attitudes and norms regarding gender roles).
The statistical unit is the individual.
27 EU Member States
2024
2024
All indicators are expressed as percentages (of all relevant respondents)
2024
Data collected through this survey are used in EIGE’s Gender Equality Index, specifically for the calculation of the domain of Time. In addition, the indicators will help monitor achievements against the strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) in the EU, particularly under Area F, ‘Women and the economy’, Area C, ‘Women and Health’, and Area K. ‘Women and the environment’.
This new dataset will also substantially contribute to the monitoring of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and the EU Care Strategy
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No direct identification of a person is possible from the indicators based on the survey.
Data processing, validation, and coding have been carried out based on the GDPR/EU Regulation 2016/679, Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. In order to guarantee respondent anonymity, personal identification variables were excluded from microdata delivered to EIGE.
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EIGE publishes the results in its dedicated Gender Statistics Database:
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No regular news releases.
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No micro-data are disseminated.
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Available upon request
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Steps were taken during the collection of data to support data quality, including:
No quality concerns have been identified.
This data is relevant to decision-makers and others in relation to on-going policy and legal changes related to gender equality and unpaid care. For instance, this new dataset will substantially contribute to the monitoring of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and the EU Care Strategy.
No user opinions have been collected.
The sample size is considered reliable for all 27 Member States selected for the survey.
The data are considered to be of high accuracy.
Non-probability online panels were used to recruit respondents to this survey. Quota-based sampling design and weights were employed to improve the quality and representativeness of the sample acquired through the panels. Multiple screening and validation strategies were used to exclude malicious actors and bots.
Country-specific effective sample sizes (accounting for the sample design) were computed, and percentage estimates based on effective sample sizes not guaranteeing an accuracy (95%-CI width) of less than 15 percentage points were excluded from the published results, while those guaranteeing an accuracy of less than 12 percentage points were published but flagged as having low reliability.
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Country comparability was ensured by following the same methodology across countries.
The questionnaire development process ensured correct translation of country-specific terminology and internationally comparable localization (e.g., by using country-specific income brackets). The weighting strategy ensured accurate representation of key target groups within each country and accurate computation of international aggregates.
The second wave used a methodology broadly consistent with the first, while introducing targeted improvements to address earlier limitations. Updates to sampling and weighting enhanced representativeness, including for long‑term carers and parents of young children. However, these methodological changes mean that second-wave data (2024) should not be directly compared to the first wave (2022).
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Each survey indicator included in the Gender Statistics Database has full internal coherence, as it is based on the same data source.
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There is no planned revision.
EIGE’s 2nd wave ‘Survey of Gender Gaps in Unpaid Care, Individual and Social Activities’, conducted in 2024.
The collection of the data for this survey was a one-off activity.
Data were collected via Computer Assisted Web Interviews (CAWI) using established online access panels.
The data validation started with the preparation and cleaning of the data.This involved data validation, weighting, codification and procedures for anonymisation and data .
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CAWI weighting (27 Member States). The sample was weighted per country, adjusting the unweighted sample to the official data using 2023 national population statistics from Eurostat. The variables gender, age, region, and level of education were used to calculate the weighting factors. Specific weights were added for long-term carers and parents of children under 12. The iterative “Rim weighting” (also known as IPF, iterative proportional fitting) procedure was used. . .Responses that passed the quality validation processes were calibrated to population benchmarks using iterative proportional fitting (RAS).
Population size weights. The responses obtained in each country should have a weight proportionate to the population size of the country and the country sample size. For this purpose, the PSW was computed as the proportion between the population ratio (between the Member State’s population aged 16–74 and the total EU-27 population aged 16–74), and the sample ratio (between the Member State sample size and the total sample size). PSW have been used in the calculation of the indicators when data from two or more countries was combined, in combination with calibration weights (calibration weight × PSW).
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