Unpaid household reality of UK workers

Women still do much more housework than men

Britons spend twice as much time on unpaid household chores as they do at work, according to a new survey.

Tasks such as cleaning, DIY and gardening take up an average four hours 40 minutes a day compared to an average two hours 25 minutes spent working.

It would cost the nation £929 billion a year if the chores were carried out by paid workers, the Office of National Statistics calculated.

An average UK day

Sleeping: 8 hours 30 minutes.

Watching TV: 2 hrs 48 mins

Paid work: 2 hrs 25 mins

Travelling: 74 mins

Cooking: 48 mins

House-cleaning: 33 mins

Shopping: 33 mins

Gardening: 29 mins

Child care: 25 mins

DIY: 13 mins

Washing and ironing: 13 mins

The poll also confirmed gender stereotypes, with women still doing almost four times as much housework as men.

But males do double the amount of DIY and oddjobs, the survey found.

It collected data from a representative sample of 1,623 British adults who kept diaries of their working and home activity.

Categories included full and part-time workers, the unemployed, students, pensioners and full time parents.

The results showed that in 1999 the average adult spent around 280 minutes daily on unpaid but productive work, classed as tasks which other people could be paid to do.

Times spent on different activities ranged from 74 minutes travelling to 13 minutes washing and ironing clothes.

Housework data showed the average woman spends 51 minutes a day cleaning and tidying the house compared to mens' 13 minutes.

But males spend 20 minutes a day on odd jobs, DIY, gardening and looking after pets.

Women dedicate eight minutes a day to the same tasks, the Office of National Statistics found.