Study: Satisfaction with time use, 2022
Released: 2026-03-19
Today, using the 2022 Time Use Survey, Statistics Canada is releasing new data and analyses on satisfaction with time use. This release includes two new data tables, the Fact Sheet: Satisfaction with Time Use and the infographic "Satisfaction with time use, 2022."
Satisfaction with time use provides valuable information about how a person perceives their overall time spent in daily activities, such as paid work, unpaid work and care, leisure and sleep. Satisfaction with time use is an indicator in Canada's Quality of Life Framework and one of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development's recommended measures of subjective well-being.
More than 6 in 10 people living in Canada (62.3%) reported that they were highly satisfied with their use of time in 2022. A person is considered to have high satisfaction when they score 7 or higher on a 10-point scale measuring overall satisfaction with their use of time.
However, high satisfaction with time use differed depending on characteristics such as age, disability and the region of Canada in which a person lives. For example, persons aged 65 years and older were most likely to report being highly satisfied with their use of time, with nearly 4 in 5 people in this age group reporting high satisfaction. This trend was also observed among persons with disabilities; those aged 65 years and older (70.6%) were significantly more likely than their younger counterparts aged 35 to 44 years (43.0%) to report high satisfaction with time use. However, overall, persons with disabilities (52.5%) were significantly less likely than persons without disabilities (69.8%) to report high satisfaction with their use of time, and their likelihood of reporting high satisfaction decreased as the severity of disability increased. Finally, people living in rural areas were more likely than those living in urban areas to report high satisfaction with time use.
Note to readers
Satisfaction with time use is one of the headline indicators of the Canada's Quality of Life Framework. The Framework was introduced in Budget 2021 to monitor key determinants of well-being. It broadens the measurement of national progress from traditional stand-alone economic indicators (such as the gross domestic product) by incorporating social, health, cultural, economic, governance and environmental perspectives. It also includes two lenses which are applied across all of its domains: the fairness and inclusion lens and the sustainability and resilience lens.
The Time Use Survey is a cross-sectional survey under the General Social Statistics Program and has been conducted since 1986, with the most recent data having been collected from July 2022 to July 2023.
The survey has a target population of non-institutionalized persons and non-residents of First Nations reserves aged 15 years and older, living in the 10 provinces of Canada. The survey uses a 24-hour time diary to collect information on how respondents spent their time during the day, including what they were doing, how long they did it for and who else was present during each activity. The survey also collects additional information on well-being and time pressure, paid work, transportation, and sociodemographic characteristics.
Persons with disabilities were identified using the short version of the Disability Screening Questions, which was included in the 2022 Time Use Survey.
Satisfaction with time use is measured on a scale of 0 to 10. Low satisfaction with time use reflects a value of 0 to 3, moderate satisfaction reflects a value of 4 to 6, and high satisfaction reflects a value of 7 to 10.
For more information about the Time Use Survey (questionnaires, definitions, data sources and methods used), please see Surveys and statistical programs - Time Use Survey.
Products
The fact sheet titled "Fact Sheet: Satisfaction with Time Use" is now available as part of the publication Spotlight on Canadians: Results from the General Social Survey (89-652-X).
The infographic "Satisfaction with time use, 2022," which is part of Statistics Canada — Infographics (11-627-M), is also available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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