Lifestyle dynamics index: Worldwide results and the case of the United States of America

Abstract

The term ‘lifestyle dynamics’ has been used in relation to family and environmental studies and it refers to ‘how lifestyle evolves over time’ –where lifestyle is how we loosely refer to ‘the way individuals live’. Lifestyle and its dynamics have also shown potential socioeconomic and household implications, noting the importance of lifestyle effects on public health or household energy consumption. We build up a novel index based on the data structure of time use surveys from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Our worldwide results confirm a clear worldwide pattern towards a less dynamic lifestyle since the 1960s. Results for the case of the United States from the ATUS in the 21st century show also an overall decline of the index in the 2003–2012 decade, with a yearly decline after 2008; we also obtained state-level results for 2013–2016 which allows us to see with-in country differences. As more time use survey data are released worldwide, the potential use of the Lifestyle Dynamics Index for socio-economic policy purposes could be better exploited, with the United States as the country with better availability and quality of data.