The global human day

William Fajzel, Eric D. Galbraith, Christopher Barrington-Leigh, Jacques Charmes, Elena Frie, Ian Hatton, Priscilla Le Mézo, Ron Milo, Kelton Minor, Xinbei Wan, Veronica Xia, Shirley Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The daily activities of ≈8 billion people occupy exactly 24 h per day, placing a strict physical limit on what changes can be achieved in the world. These activities form the basis of human behavior, and because of the global integration of societies and economies, many of these activities interact across national borders. Yet, there is no comprehensive overview of how the finite resource of time is allocated at the global scale. Here, we estimate how all humans spend their time using a generalized, physical outcome-based categorization that facilitates the integration of data from hundreds of diverse datasets. Our compilation shows that most waking hours are spent on activities intended to achieve direct outcomes for human minds and bodies (9.4 h/d), while 3.4 h/d are spent modifying our inhabited environments and the world beyond. The remaining 2.1 h/d are devoted to organizing social processes and transportation. We distinguish activities that vary strongly with GDP per capita, including the time allocated to food provision and infrastructure, vs. those that do not vary consistently, such as meals and transportation time. Globally, the time spent directly extracting materials and energy from the Earth system is small, on the order of 5 min per average human day, while the time directly dealing with waste is on the order of 1 min per day, suggesting a large potential scope to modify the allocation of time to these activities. Our results provide a baseline quantification of the temporal composition of global human life that can be expanded and applied to multiple fields of research.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2219564120
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume120
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Jun 2023

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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