DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS STATISTICS DIVISION	ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR WESTERN ASIA STATISTICS DIVISION
UNITED NATIONS
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Arab Time Use Statistics Workshop

Amman, Jordan, 25-28 April 2011

Dissemination and Interpretation of time use data

Topic 1: Time use patterns in China

Rachid Bouhia

bouhia@un.org

Sources:

Figure 1 and 2: National Bureau of Statistics of China, “Time use patterns in China, abstract of the 2088 Time Use Survey”, China Statistics Press p9-10

Methodological note:

Time Use Survey in China: In order to reflect the everyday life in China, to measure how much time people spend on doing various productive activities, and to explore the role of women and men in social and economic life, the National Bureau of Statistics of China conducted a time use survey in May 2008 in 10 selected provinces.

37,142 individuals aged 15-74 were interviewed through an open diary of 10 minutes intervals. In addition to the main activity, information on the second activity, the location and the other people in presence were collected in the diary.

Participation rate: The proportion of the individuals participating in a particular activity to the total number of people surveyed on an average day (Unit: %).

SNA: System of National Accounts

Tutorial:

Step 1: Reading

What do the two figures represent?

How were they calculated from the diary questionnaires?

Please give specific examples of how one should read the figures. For example, how much of their time do Chinese urban men spend in average on SNA productive activities? What are urban women doing at 9am on weekend days?

Why do you think it was appropriate to differentiate weekdays from weekends and urban area from rural area?

Step 2: Results

In your opinion, what are the main results brought out by each figure regarding the general structure of time use in China? You may pay a particular attention to gender inequalities.

Step 3: Criticism

What is the value-added of each figure compared to a basic table disclosing the average time use for the 7 activities?

How do the two figures complement each other?

As a statistician or economic/social searcher, what measures would you take to investigate further the scope of those diagrams?

Figure 1: Time use structure by 7 activity categories

Figure 2: Distribution of participation rate by 7 activity categories at different hours of the day