Sustainable Development Goals - 17 Goals to Transform our World

Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location

Indicator 5.4.1: Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location

Data follows the UN specification for this indicator and has been indentified in collaboration with topic experts.

The Sustainable Development Goals is a collaborative project, if you have any feedback or suggestions for data please contact us at SustainableDevelopment@ons.gov.uk

Percentage of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex

Sub-categories

Choose categories from the dropdowns below to see different breakdowns of the data. Some will not be available until a higher level is chosen.

Click on the legend to remove individual lines from the chart.

Download Headline CSV Download Source CSV

Headline data

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from UK statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from UK statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other UK-specific metadata information.

Indicator available Percentage of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex
Indicator description
Geographical coverage United Kingdom
Unit of measurement Percentage (%)
Definitions An activity is said to be productive or to fall within the “general production boundary” if it satisfies the third-person criterion (the activity can be delegated to another person and yield the same desired results). Productive activities can be further classified based on the ILO framework for work statistics (included in the 19th ICLS resolution) into: i) Own-use production work (activities to produce goods and services for own final use; the intended destination of the output is mainly for final use of the producer in the form of capital formation, or final consumption by household members or by family members living in other households; in the case of agricultural, fishing, hunting or gathering goods intended mainly for own consumption, a part or surplus may nevertheless be sold or bartered); ii) Employment (activities to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit); ii) Unpaid trainee work (any unpaid activity to produce goods or provide services for others, in order to acquire workplace experience or skills in a trade or profession); iv) Volunteer work (any unpaid, non-compulsory activity to produce goods or provide services for others); v) Other forms of work. The own-use production work can be differentiated based on whether goods or services are produced. Indicator 5.4.1 only considers the own-use production work of services, or in other words, the activities related to unpaid domestic services and unpaid caregiving services undertaken by households for their own use. These activities are listed in ICATUS 2016 under the major divisions “3. Unpaid domestic services for household and family members” and “4. Unpaid caregiving services for household and family members”. As much as possible, statistics compiled by UNSD are based on the International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics 2016 (ICATUS 2016), which classifies activities undertaken by persons during the survey period. ICATUS 2016 was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission for use as an international statistical classification at its 48th session, 7-10 March 2017.
Calculations Data presented for this indicator are expressed as a proportion of time in a day. Weekly data is averaged over seven days of the week to obtain the daily average time. Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work is calculated by dividing the daily average number of hours spent on unpaid domestic and care work by 24 hours.
Other information
Data last updated 2018-04-04: see changes on GitHub opens in a new window
Metadata last updated 2018-05-31: see changes on GitHub opens in a new window

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator name Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location
Indicator number 5.4.1
Target name Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
Target number 5.4
Global indicator description
UN designated tier 2
UN custodian agency UN Statistics Division (UNSD)
Link to UN metadata United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Metadata (PDF 337 KB) opens in a new window

Source 1

Organisation Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Periodicity Discontinuous
Earliest available data 2000
Geographical coverage United Kingdom
Link to data source United Kingdom Time Use Survey, 2000 opens in a new window
Release date 16-01-2017
Next release 11-10-2011
Statistical classification Official Statistic
Contact details https//www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/get-in-touch
Other information

Source 2

Organisation Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Periodicity Discontinuous
Earliest available data 2005
Geographical coverage United Kingdom
Link to data source ONS Omnibus Survey, Time Use Module, February, June, September and November 2005 opens in a new window
Release date 11-10-2011
Next release 16-01-2017
Statistical classification Official Statistic
Contact details https//www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/get-in-touch
Other information

Source 3

Organisation Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Periodicity Discontinuous
Earliest available data 2015
Geographical coverage United Kingdom
Link to data source United Kingdom Time Use Survey, 2014-2015 opens in a new window
Release date 16-01-2017
Next release To be announced
Statistical classification Official Statistic
Contact details https//www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/get-in-touch
Other information