Page Updated: 20 November 2025
This page provides an overview of the time-use surveys that have been conducted across the African continent, together with guidance on where their microdata can be accessed. Because time-use data collection in Africa is still limited and uneven, the page distinguishes clearly between countries with publicly downloadable microdata, countries where surveys exist but data must be requested directly from national statistical offices, and countries that have fielded time-use modules as part of larger household or labour-force surveys. Users will find links to data portals, catalogues, and official documentation, as well as notes on survey design, diary formats, and comparability. The aim is to give researchers, policymakers, and students a consolidated starting point for identifying available African time-use datasets and understanding the scope and accessibility of each. If you are beginning a cross-country project or simply searching for the best entry point into African time-use data, this page shows you what exists, where to find it, and what to expect.
Please note that the resources listed on this page are not exhaustive, as the availability and accessibility of time-use data across African countries continue to evolve. New surveys, data releases, and documentation become available periodically, and I will update this page on an ongoing basis to reflect the latest information. Users are warmly invited to suggest corrections, propose additions, or share resources that should be included—your contributions will help ensure that this page remains accurate, comprehensive, and useful to the broader research and policy community
What is time use research?
Time-use research examines how people spend their time across a 24-hour day. It uses tools such as time diaries, stylised questions, observation, and digital tracking to record activities, context, and simultaneous tasks.
Unlike traditional surveys that focus on income, employment or demographics, time-use data capture the full spectrum of daily life — paid work, unpaid care, domestic labour, learning, commuting, rest, social participation, and leisure.
Because time is a finite resource shared by everyone, time-use research provides a uniquely powerful lens for understanding wellbeing, inequality, and the invisible structures that organise household and community life.
Why time use research matters in African contexts
Time-use data are especially valuable in Africa, where livelihoods are diverse, much work happens informally or within households, and care systems rely heavily on family and community labour.
Time-use research helps to:
Make unpaid care work visible, especially for women and girls.
Capture informal and multi-tasked work that traditional labour surveys often miss.
Understand complex household arrangements, including multi-generational and migrant-sending households.
Identify time poverty, long commutes, and hidden time burdens that shape daily wellbeing.
Support planning for basic services, transport, water access, and healthcare.
Provide evidence for national care strategies, social protection, and gender-responsive budgeting.
Track progress on SDGs related to gender equality, work, education and inequality.
In short, time-use data help reveal the realities of African life as they are lived, not just as they are reported.
How to use this hub
This hub is is a starting point for anyone working with or interested in time-use research in Africa. You can use it to:
Find Data
Explore national time use surveys across African countries.
Access Resources
Browse a growing bibliography of research on African time use patterns, care work, informality, inequality and more.
Contribute
Submit new surveys, publications, tools or projects so the hub remains current and community-driven.
Time Use Surveys
Although time use data collection has been sporadic on the African continent, many countries have nevertheless conducted time use surveys. These countries represent about a third of all countries on the continent. Some have collected once-off surveys, others have collected time use data on multiple occasions. Some collected standalone surveys and others embedded them as a module in existing surveys.
This table provides an overview of these surveys, the year they were collected, the type of survey which was conducted and a link to explore data availability.
| Country | Survey Name | Year(s) | Type | Notes | Microdata Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Algeria |
Enquête sur l’Emploi du Temps (ENET) |
2012 |
Standalone time-use survey (diary) |
National diary-based TUS. Public report available; microdata access via Office National des Statistiques (ONS) on request. |
|
|
Benin |
Enquête sur l’Utilisation du Temps (Time-Use Survey) |
1998 |
Standalone time-use survey (diary) |
Early national TUS. Documentation cited in Charmes compilations; microdata not located online, likely available on request from INSAE. |
|
|
Benin |
Enquête Modulaire Intégrée sur les Conditions de Vie des Ménages (EMICoV) – Time-use module |
2015 |
Time-use module in multi-purpose household survey |
EMICoV 2015 contains a specific time-use/unpaid work module. Access via INSAE or World Bank microdata after request; no direct public link found. |
|
|
Cabo Verde |
Inquérito Multi-Objectivo Contínuo – Módulo Uso do Tempo e Trabalho Não Remunerado |
2012 |
Time-use module in continuous multi-purpose survey |
Includes detailed module on time use and unpaid work. Microdata available from Instituto Nacional de Estatística with conditions. |
|
|
Cameroon |
Enquête sur l’Emploi du Temps |
2014 |
Time-use module in ECAM4 household survey |
Full time-use section (Section 15) embedded in ECAM4 2014. Microdata accessible via World Bank Microdata Library (registration required). |
|
|
Djibouti |
Enquête Djiboutienne Auprès des Ménages (EDAM) – Temps d’utilisation du temps module |
2012 (approx.) |
Time-use module in household survey |
Time-use/employment-of-time module mentioned in regional compilations. Microdata not found online; likely via Djibouti national statistics office on request. |
|
|
Ethiopia |
Ethiopia Time Use Survey (ETUS) |
2013 |
Standalone survey |
National diary-based survey. Report is public; microdata not posted in open catalogues, likely available on request from Ethiopian Statistics Service. |
|
|
Ethiopia |
Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (ESS) – Time Use Section |
2013–2014 |
Time use module |
World Bank LSMS-type survey with time-use related questions. Public-use microdata via World Bank Microdata portal (registration and licence). |
|
|
Ghana |
Ghana Time Use Survey |
2009 |
Standalone Survey |
National time-use survey. Microdata available via IHSN catalog and also as anonymised file via HCP open data (ENET 2012 page). |
|
|
Senegal |
Enquête sur l’Emploi du Temps |
2021 (first national TUS) |
Standalone time-use survey (diary) |
Reported by AFDB/UN Women as Senegal’s first time-use survey. No public microdata found yet; contact ANSD (Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie). |
|
|
Sierra Leone |
Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS) – Employment and Time-use Section |
2003–2004 |
Time-use module in LSMS-type survey |
National LSMS survey with employment and time-use modules (weekly/broad categories). Microdata accessible via World Bank (registration required). |
|
|
South Africa |
South African Time Use Survey 2010 |
2010 |
Standalone Survey |
Public-use microdata via DataFirst (UCT). Requires free account and acceptance of licence. |
|
|
South Africa |
South Africa Time Use Survey 2000 |
2000 |
Standalone Survey |
Public-use microdata via World Bank Microdata; distributed by DataFirst. Free registration and data agreement required. |
|
|
Tanzania |
Tanzanian Integrated Labour Force Survey |
2006 |
Time Use Module |
ILFS includes time-use module. Microdata available via Tanzania NBS microdata portal upon registration and approval. |
|
|
Tanzania |
Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) – Time Use / Hours Modules |
2014 |
Time use module |
ILFS 2014 includes time-related and hours-worked information. Microdata via NBS portal (registration/approval). |
|
|
Tanzania |
Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) – Time Use / Hours Modules |
2020/21 |
Time use module |
ILFS 2020/21 includes time-use and hours information. Microdata via NBS portal (registration/approval). |
|
|
Tunisia |
Time-use module in Household Budget and Consumption Survey |
2005–2006 |
Time-use module in household budget survey |
Includes detailed unpaid work/time use module. Access via Institut National de la Statistique (INS Tunisia); no public microdata portal identified. |
|
Contribute or Contact
This page is a work in progress, and I’m continuously updating it as I come across new surveys, literature, and initiatives on time-use research in Africa. If you notice something missing—whether it’s a publication, dataset, light-diary tool, or any resource that should be included—I’d really appreciate hearing from you. Alternatively, if you have questions, do reach out.
Please feel free to reach out to me directly with suggestions or contributions. You can contact me at odile@odilemackett.com.
Thank you for helping to make this a more complete and useful resource for everyone working on time use in Africa.
Resources
- Hirway. I. (2025). Recent Initiatives in Improving the Collection of Time-use Data for Measuring Work: Some Issues (Working Paper No. 1092). Levy Economics Institute. https://www.levyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/wp_1092.pdf
- Getahun, T. & Mekonnen, J. L. (2024). Time use among rural households in Ethiopia: Implications for household welfare and productivity (ZEF Working Paper Series, No. 229) University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF). https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/301166/1/1894166647.pdf
- Kenya National Bureau of Statistics & UN Women. (2023). Kenya Time Use Survey Report 2021/22. UN Women Africa.
https://africa.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/10/kenya-time-use-survey-report - Kannan, S. & Bassette, D. L. (2023). Time-use among men and women in Zambia: A comparison of grid, off-grid, and unconnected households. Energy for Sustainable Development, 76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2023.101276.
- Carmichael, F., Darko, C. K., Daley, P., Duberley, J., Ercolani, M., Schwanen, T. & Wheatley, D. (2023). Time poverty and gender in urban sub-Saharan Africa: Long working days and long commutes in Ghana’s Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. Journal of International Development, 36(1), 343-364. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jid.3817
- Eissler, S., Heckert, J., Myers, E., Seymour, G., Sinharoy, S. & Yount, K. (2022). Measuring Women’s Empowerment: Gender and Time-use Agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria. Development & Change, 53(5). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/dech.12725
- Harrichurran, P., Claire Vermaak, C. & Muller, C. (2021). The influence of household composition on leisure time in South Africa: A gender comparison. (SA-TIED Working Paper No. 164). UNU-WIDER.
https://sa-tied-archive.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/SA-TIED-WP164.pdf - United Nations Statistics Division. (2020). Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work (Series F, No. 127).
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/SeriesF/Seriesf_127e.pdf - Charmes, J. (2017). Time Use Surveys in Africa: Problems and Prospects. In Hirway, I. (ed.). Mainstreaming unpaid work: time-use data in developing policies. 141-169. Oxford University Press.
(Chapter Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468256.003.0003) - Masuda, Y., Fortmann, L., Gugerty, M. K., Smith-Nilson, M. & Cook, J. (2014)Pictorial approaches for measuring time use in rural Ethiopia. Social Indicators Research, 115(1), 467-482. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4300963/
- Floro, M. S. & Komatsu, H. (2011). Gender and Work in South Africa: What Can Time-Use Data Reveal? Feminist Economics, 17(4), 33-66.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545701.2011.614954 - Antonopoulos, R., & Hirway, I. (Eds.). (2010). Unpaid Work and the Economy: Gender, Time Use and Poverty in Developing Countries. Oxford University Press.
(Chapter link: https://academic.oup.com/book/26313/chapter-abstract/194579736) - Kes, A., & Swaminathan, H. (2006). Gender and time poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Unpaid Work and the Economy. Oxford University Press.
(Chapter link: https://academic.oup.com/book/26313/chapter/194579736) - Blackden, C. M., & Wodon, Q. (Eds.). (2006). Gender, Time Use, and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank.
https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/473591467990333534/gender-time-use-and-poverty-in-sub-saharan-africa - Bourdon, M., & de Vreyer, P. (2017). Household time allocation in rural Africa (Working paper). IRD.
(NB: This one appears older in content but published under a 2017 archive date.)
https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers18-08/010073490.pdf - Gershuny, J. (1992). Are we running out of time? Futures, 24, 3–22.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00347894 - Bittman, M. (1995). Recent changes in unpaid work. Sociology of Health & Illness, 17(2), 283–309.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066454