Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS) coverage

The database currently covers 27 countries, and it is expanding rapidly. The current geographical range primarily encompasses Europe and other high income English-speaking countries. There is also considerable historical depth for some of these countries with extensive diary data series over time (such as the US, UK, Canada, and Australia).

Currently, MTUS predominantly features datasets from affluent countries. However, this is expected to change as efforts intensify to gather datasets globally, especially from regions not yet represented, with current acquisition goals including datasets from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It's worth noting that most Latin American time use surveys currently available are questionnaire-based surveys, which are not the primary focus of the MTUS. In fact, Argentina stands out as the only country in Latin America to have conducted a modern time use survey using diaries (Perú also has a diary-based study, but it is rather old). This data has recently been acquired and is due to be incorporated into the forthcoming MTUS release.

Given the scale of the representation there may be minor inaccuracies on a country-to-country basis: a comprehensive list of countries (and respective surveys) for each category is available on the files below. MTUS also features regional samples; however, these are not represented here (they can be found in the second downloadable file). 

The MTUS by country file (Excel) contains the same information that is included in the figure as and excel file, and the MTUS by survey file (Excel) is like the one above; however, each entry represents a survey instead of a country. This inventory is a work in progress and we'd be grateful for users to give us input on the table by emailing ctur@ucl.ac.uk. 

Until now, all the data or surveys within the MTUS collection have been sourced from traditional pen-and-pencil diary surveys, or from computer-assisted interview versions of such surveys (using Computer Assisted Personal or Telephone Interview designs). The upcoming release incorporates time use diary data collected online for the first time (the Centre for Time Use Research UK Time Use Survey 6-Wave Sequence across the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2016-2021). As the digital age advances, it is anticipated that diary data collected online will become a staple in the MTUS collection.

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All surveys in this table are included in the Harmonised File of the MTUS dataset. Two types of data files are provided: Harmonised Aggregate files (HAFs) and Harmonised Episode file (HEFs).  

HAFs offer aggregate (summary) versions of the time use surveys, where each row in the dataset reflects a record in one 24-hour time diary. The HAFs include demographic and socioeconomic information about respondents and their households alongside the aggregated time use variables. 

Harmonised Episode Files (HEF) covers episode sequence information. In the HEFs, each row represents one episode, reflecting a change of main activity/ secondary activity/ location/ computer or Internet use/ location or mode of transport, or presence of others information.  Users of the HEF are advised to match each episode record to the corresponding demographic and socioeconomic variables contained in the HAF.

Please download the full table by clicking on the below link.

MTUS for download