Many Canadians Feeling "Free Time Crunch"

And 52% of this Age Group Say They Have Less Free Time Than Five Years Ago

March 8, 2001 -- An Ipsos-Reid poll released today queried Canadians aged 19 and older about the amount of free time in their lives. With free time defined as "the time outside of work or school which you can use to relax or pursue personal interests and activities such as hobbies or time with your family and friends", Canadians are essentially split between those who feel they have about the right amount (47%) and those who feel they do not have enough (46%) free time in their life. Notably, just 7 percent indicate that they have too much free time in their life.

• Members of the 19-34 (54%) and 35-54 (55%) age brackets (55% combined) are far more likely to feel that there is not enough free time in their life than those over the age of 54 (25%).
• Not surprisingly, Canadians who say they currently have less free time than five years ago (74%) are more likely to feel they do not have enough free time than those who indicate they have about the same amount (36%) or more (19%).
• Canadians with an annual household income of $60,000 or greater (58%) are more likely to say they do not have enough free time than those in the $30,000-$59,999 (46%) and under $30,000 (36%) income brackets.

Changing Levels of Free Time

When comparing the current amount of free time in their life to five years ago, four-in-ten (41%) Canadians say they have less free time - almost a quarter (24%) indicating that they have a lot less. Conversely, three-in-ten (31%) say they have more free time, and 14 percent indicate they have a lot more free time than five years ago. More than a quarter (28%) of Canadians say they currently have about the same amount of free time in their life as compared to five years ago.

• Understandably, members of the 19-34 (64%) and 35-54 (41%) age brackets (52% combined) are far more likely to say that they have less free time than those over the age of 54 (13%).
• Those who feel they do not have enough free time (65%) are more likely to say they have less free time compared to five years ago than those who feel they have too much (12%) or about the right amount (21%).
• The likelihood of indicating a decline in free time over the past five years increases amongst larger annual household income brackets; under $30,000 (36%), $30,000-$59,999 (42%), $60,000+ (48%).

Main Negative Effects of Lack of Free Time

Among those Canadians who feel they do not have enough free time, the top negative effects of the lack of free time in their life are stress (27%), no time for family/friends (26%), and fatigue/exhaustion (25%).

Other notable mentions include lack of time for everyday things (15%), lack of fun/activities/sports/entertainment (10%), irritability/frustration (8%), and lack of sleep (7%).

Sex or Sleep

Prior to any mention or questions concerning free time, Canadians were asked whether they preferred "a good night's sleep" or "a good night of sex". Of the two options, almost six-in-ten (58%) Canadians prefer sleep and less than four-in-ten (37%) prefer sex.

• Women (72%) are far more likely to prefer sleep over sex than men (44%).
• Members of the 55+ age bracket (74%) are much more likely to choose sleep over sex than those in the 19-34 (54%) and 35-54 (51%) age brackets.
• The likelihood of preferring sleep to sex declines amongst larger annual household income brackets: under $30,000 (67%), $30,000-$59,999 (59%), $60,000+ (52%).

Support for A New Public Holiday

In order to increase the amount of free time in people's lives, more than three-quarters (77%) of Canadians support the introduction of "one new public holiday during the spring or summer months in addition to the existing public holidays". Moreover, a clear majority (55%) are strongly supportive. Only 20 percent are opposed to the proposal - just 9 percent strongly so.

• Those who feel they do not have enough free time (82%; 66% strongly) are more likely to support a new public holiday than those who feel they have too much (65%; 40% strongly) or about the right amount (74%; 47% strongly).
• Canadians who say they currently have less free time than five years ago (82%) are more likely to support a new public holiday than those who indicate they have about the same amount (71%) or more (75%).
• Support for a new public holiday varies across Canada: Atlantic Canada (82%), Ontario (81%), Quebec (76%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (76%), British Columbia (72%), and Alberta (65%).
• Women (81%) are more likely to support the introduction of a new public holiday than men (73%).
• Members of the 19-34 (84%; 61% strongly) and 35-54 (79%; 61% strongly) age brackets are far more likely to be supportive of a new public holiday than those over the age of 54 (66%; 40% strongly).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of Blue Light between January 30th and February 1st, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected, representative sample of 996 adult Canadians aged 19 and older. The results are accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire Canadian population been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. The data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canada population according to the 1996 Census data.

For more information on this release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900

OR

Nicola Moore / Ron Christianson
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
(416) 964-6444