The typical day of the human being: this is what we do with our 24 hours

How do we organize the hours of our day? The differences are obviously many. They depend on where we live, on the job we do (if we have one), on how we eat, on our age and schooling, on the safety conditions of the place where we live and on countless other elements. This is why it seems a bit absurd that someone has (scientifically) set about tracing a sort of typical schedule of the average day of humans. An international team led by William Fajzel of the Canadian McGill University, in Montréal.

L’investigationactually a monumental meta-analysis that puts under the lens a large number of sources and statistical reports of the last 20 years in 140 countries of the world, explains for example that of the 24 hours 9.1 are destined to rest, 9.4 to activities per se and related to relationships between human beings (hygiene, beauty, health but also sporting activities, education and culture, entertainment), 3.4 to activities that concern the context in which we live (from preparing food to making objects) while 2.1 they are used for travel, transport and organization of activities (such as commercial and administrative duties).

“Understanding how the global human system works is critical if we are to navigate planetary boundaries sustainably, adapt to rapid technological changes such as artificial intelligence, and achieve global development goals,” write the researchers in the introduction to their paper, structured largely part around the formidable Human Chronome Project – but the vast scope and diversity of human endeavors presents a major challenge for holistic evaluation. In this study we address this issue by providing a global estimate of the time use of all human beings, integrating economic and non-economic data into a coherent framework. Our findings provide a general perspective on what our species does, including how economic activities fit into the context of life, and reveal activities for which there is significant potential for change.”

Some activities, crucial for our existence on the planet but obviously carried out by relatively small groups of people or which we guiltily care little about, instead occupy minimal fractions of our day if redistributed proportionally among all about 8 billion inhabitantsa milestone reached last autumn: «On a global level, the time taken to directly extract materials and energy from planet Earth is reduced, of the order of 5 minutes per average human day – reads the survey – while the time dedicated directly to waste is of the order of one minute per day, suggesting ample potential for changing the time allotment to these activities.

Entering the analysis of the graph prepared by the researchers (above), it is understandable how 9.1 hours are dedicated every day to sleep and rest in general. About 9.4 instead concern direct human relationships and human needs divided as follows: 4.6 hours in active and passive social interactions, 1.6 hours for meals, 0.4 hours for active recreation. It’s still: 1.1 hours for sanitation0.3 hours for practical childcare, 0.2 hours for health, 1.1 hours for school and research, and 0.2 hours for religious practices.

For activities with external outcomes, so to speak, to which we dedicate an average of 3.4 hours a day, 0.9 hours go to food preparation, 0.4 to the creation of objects, 0.8 hours on cultivation and harvesting of food raw materials and much more, up to 0.01 hours dedicated to waste management. Finally, for the logistical and organizational aspects, we dedicate 0.9 hours a day both to issues such as finance, laws, administrative aspects and human transport. On the other hand, we allocate 0.3 hours to transfers of goods.

Overall, at economic activities – i.e. paid work or housework (graph above)– instead they go about 2.6 hours a day (158 min), about 11% of the global human day, or one-sixth of waking hours over the average lifetime. That may seem like a little, experts explain, but it equates to a 41-hour workweek among the global workforce (which is about 66% of the working-age population, aged 15-64).