EIGE

In general, how often are you involved in any of the following activities outside of work? (% of respondents, 18+ population) ta_timeuse_soclesact_time__eqls_famcareactiv

Time format:
Years
Unit:
Percentage (comparable)
Description:

Calculations are based on microdata from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), coordinated by Eurofound. The survey aims to represent the population of all residents in a survey country aged 18 or older.

The question considered is question Q42 from the 2016 EQLS survey in the EQLS Integrated Data File, 2003-2016: In general, how often are you involved in any of the following activities outside of work? 1 Every day; 2 Several days a week; 3 Once or twice a week; 4 Less often; 5 Never.

This question was modified in 2016. In 2016, it asks respondents about the following activities:

  • a) Caring for and/or educating your children (asked of respondents with children under 18 or if they have children under 18 living in their household);
  • b) Caring for and/or educating your grandchildren (asked of respondents with children over 18 or if they have grandchildren living their household);
  • c) Cooking and / or housework;
  • d) Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends under 75 years old and;
  • e) Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends aged 75 or over.

Prior to 2016, options a) Caring for and/or educating your children; and b) Caring for and/or educating your grandchildren, were aggregated into a single question (i.e. "Caring for your children, grandchildren"), although option a) was also available in 2007. In addition, options d) Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends under 75 years old and; e) Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends aged 75 or over, were also aggregated into a single question (i.e. "Caring for elderly or disabled relatives").

As a result of this change, data on the disaggregated categories ("Caring for and/or educating your children"; "Caring for and/or educating your grandchildren"; "Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends under 75 years old" and; "Caring for disabled or infirm family members, neighbours or friends aged 75 or over") are available only for 2016, and data for the aggregated categories ("Caring for your children, grandchildren" and "Caring for elderly or disabled relatives" are only available prior to 2016.

For each response category, the indicator is calculated as the percentage of persons who answered the question using this response category out of all respondents who were asked to respond to this question.

The selection of relevant questions from the EQLS surveys to be included in the database was based on the following criteria:

  • Additionality: EQLS questions were included where they provided additional information compared to other data (such as Eurostat data) included in the database;
  • Policy & research relevance: EQLS questions were included where they were judged to be highly policy relevant and/or showed substantial gender variation in data;
  • Recent data: EQLS questions were included only if they were last asked less than ten years ago; and
  • Sufficient sample size: EQLS questions were included only if there was a sufficient number of respondents to allow for response breakdown by EU Member States and gender.
EU28
BE
BG
CZ
DK
DE
EE
IE
EL
ES
FR
HR
IT
CY
LV
LT
LU
HU
MT
NL
AT
PL
PT
RO
SI
SK
FI
SE
IS
NO
UK
ME
MK
AL
RS
TR
XK
2016
2011
2007
EU28
56.9
58.3
54.6
BE
57.4
59.7
59.5
BG
44.1
44
39.2
CZ
42.2
39.1
41.7
DK
68.8
66
63
DE
51.2
57
59.9
EE
62.4
64.2
57.7
IE
68.9
70.2
56.1
EL
52
49.1
43.4
ES
63.8
59.4
52.7
FR
58.4
63.9
58.1
HR
38
55.2
48.8
IT
51.3
57
45.5
CY
54.8
45.3
50.7
LV
70.3
65.2
60.7
LT
56.4
61.1
56
LU
58.5
56.8
57.9
HU
35.8
42.5
45.1
MT
59.1
51.5
46.6
NL
64.4
62.9
55.8
AT
56.7
47.2
43.1
PL
58.6
51.2
51.1
PT
50.3
52.6
47.2
RO
58.2
53.8
47.9
SI
54.7
55.8
52.3
SK
38.2
40
34.7
FI
71.8
65.5
69.3
SE
64.9
63
64.7
IS
53.1
NO
65.8
UK
67.2
70.1
66.8
ME
39.9
39.7
MK
40.7
42.4
40.5
AL
50.1
RS
40.4
47.3
TR
33
43.1
43.7
XK
29

Available flags:

b break in time series c confidential
d definition differs, see metadata e estimated
f forecast i see metadata
m imputed n not significant
p provisional r revised
s Eurostat estimate u low reliability
x dropped due to insufficient sample size y unreliable due to small sample size
z not applicable