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TV remains very popular in Germany, at least for the less well off


How they spend that time is the interesting part.

Excluding weekends and holidays, Germans have an average four hours and three minutes a day for leisure activities, according to a study conducted by the Gfk Group and funded by British American Tobacco’s Foundation for Future Studies.

And what do they do in that time? If they’re top earners, in the range of €3,500 or more a month, they have sex. Those less well off, to the tune of less than €1,000 monthly, aren’t as frisky, according to the study, which cited 46% of top earnings and only 23% of those with less cash, partaking at least once a week.

Ulrich Reinhardt, who led the study, confessed to German daily Die Welt [in German] that he had no idea why richer people have more sex.

Internet use was surprisingly low, with only 48% of Germans saying they go online during their free time. That use was heavily split along education lines. Some 71% with at least a high school education spent free time on the Internet, while less than a third (32%) of those who only have a secondary school education were Web users.

The study didn’t include common activities such as commuting, sleeping, showering and eating as leisure activities. The pub also ranked high on the list, with some 35% of the 6,000 respondents saying they enjoyed a cold one at the bar at least once a month, versus 27% of respondents in the same survey conducted in 2007.

What Germans most like to do in their free time won’t really surprise anyone. Across all age groups, the television is still the king time sucker. At least once a week, 97% of respondents said they turn on the TV. Next up for favorite leisure activities was the phone with a score of 91%; radio for 89% of respondents; newspapers and magazines for 79%.

Funny enough, the study didn’t ask how many people like to smoke in their leisure, given the company that sponsored the study.

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