On an average day, 83 percent of women and 64 percent of men spent some time doing household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, on the days that they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent somewhat less time, 2.0 hours, according to the BLS. The agency recently released the 2008 results from its American Time Use Survey, which also examines the average amount of time per day in 2008 that individuals worked, cared for household children, participated in educational activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities.

Employed men spend more hours at work than employed women, the study finds. On the days that they worked, employed men worked about 0.9 hour (52 minutes) more than employed women. BLS says the difference partly reflects women's greater likelihood of working part time. “However, even among full-time workers (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked longer than women—8.3 versus 7.7 hours,” BLS reports. Overall, employed persons worked an average of 7.6 hours on the days that they worked, and worked longer on weekdays than on weekend days—7.9 versus 5.6 hours. Other findings: about 10 percent of the population is engaged in educational activities, such as attending class or doing homework, on an average weekday; nearly everyone age 15 and over (96 percent) engaged in some sort of leisure activity, such as watching TV, socializing, or exercising on an average day.