Kitchen sink loses attraction as Britons get a better social life

The women and men of Britain are doing a lot less housework than six years ago and the half hour they are saving every day is providing the opportunity for more socialising and a few extra minutes of quality time with the children.

That, at least, is the official version of how we are spending our time - the result of an exhaustive survey by the Office for National Statistics, which asked a representative sample of nearly 5,000 adults to record what they did for every minute of the waking day.

It found Britons spent less time eating and drinking in 2005 than in the last survey in 2000. They have also cut down on reading, sports activity and personal care, a term used by statisticians to cover washing, dressing and important etceteras.

But the biggest change since 2000 is a sharp decline in housework. Six years ago, the average Briton spent two hours and 53 minutes on keeping the home clean and tidy. By 2005 that had fallen to two hours and 22 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, the average masked a gender difference. On the typical day last year, 77% of men and 92% of women spent time doing housework, compared with 86% and 96% in 2000. Women averaged three hours' housework a day, against one hour 41 minutes for the men.

For both sexes, the time spent at the kitchen sink and with the vacuum cleaner was reduced by about half an hour. But because men did less housework in the first place, that represented a 21% cut for men and 16% for women. The ONS did not offer a theory to explain whether the flight from chores was the result of people becoming less tidy or more reliant on labour-saving devices and domestic help.

The survey provided further ammunition for women who would like men to be more helpful. It said men have 30 minutes more free time on the average day - defining free time as what is left after sleep, personal care, meals, paid work, domestic work, study and travel.

However, the ONS said: "This is to some extent compensated for by the extra 20 minutes women spend sleeping."

The averages sometimes produced confusing results, suggesting the average Briton spends a little under three hours in employment, a far cry from the usual story of excess overtime and workaholic zeal. On this occasion the ONS averaged the working hours of full-timers, part-timers, the retired and unemployed.

Similarly, average hours spent on childcare were reduced by the results for people without dependent children. This explained why women reported spending 32 minutes a day on childcare and men 15 minutes. Both had less free time if there were children in the household. Men aged 16-49 with children of pre-school age had 231 minutes of free time a day, against 348 for those with no dependent children.

In some ways life has changed little since 2000. But the amount of time we spend just resting has doubled.