Average weekly hours of unpaid work by marital and parental status

The bar chart illustrates the average weekly hours spent on unpaid domestic tasks, such as childcare and housework, by married individuals categorized by their parental status. Overall, it is evident that married women undertake a much larger share of unpaid labour than their male counterparts, and this disparity grows as family size increases.

For married women, the time spent on unpaid work rises steadily with the number of children. Those without children spend 30 hours per week on such tasks, which increases to 51 hours for those with one or two children. This figure peaks at 60 hours for women with three or more children, representing a doubling of the time spent compared to those without children.

In contrast, the time spent by married men on unpaid work remains relatively low and stable, regardless of the number of children. Men without children and those with one or two children both contribute 19 hours per week. Interestingly, this figure dips slightly to 17.5 hours for men with three or more children. Consequently, while women’s unpaid workload increases significantly with family size, men’s contribution remains largely static, resulting in a pronounced gender imbalance in larger households.