--- title: What Are We Doing with Our Lives? description: From the price of having kids to the cost of becoming an adult, here's a closer look canonical: https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-28T11:17:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:53.387Z og:title: What Are We Doing with Our Lives? og:description: From the price of having kids to the cost of becoming an adult, here's a closer look og:url: https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Are We Doing with Our Lives? twitter:description: From the price of having kids to the cost of becoming an adult, here's a closer look twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What Are We Doing with Our Lives? > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 28, 2014 11:17 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 28, 2014 11:17 AM UTC \[The following text appears within 8 charts. Please see your hard copy for actual charts.\] TIME USE Average workday in 2012 for employed people ages 25 to 54 who have kids 8.8 hours WORKING 7.7 hours SLEEPING 2.6 hours LEISURE/SPORTS 1.2 hours CARING FOR OTHERS 1.1 hours EATING/DRINKING 1 hour HOUSEHOLD ACTIVITIES 1.6 hours OTHER 2.5 FAMILY SIZE American families have shrunk. In 2013, the average size of a household was 2.54 people. In 1950, it was about 3.37 people. The percentage of households with one person has gone up. In 1960, it was around 13.1%. In 2013, it was about 27.4% COST OF RAISING KIDS TO ADULTHOOD $245,340 In 2013, these were among the major expenses of raising a child age 17 or younger: MISC. 8% HOUSING 30% FOOD 16% TRANSPORTATION 14% CLOTHING 6% HEALTH CARE 8% CHILD CARE/EDUCATION 18% \[This article contains a table. Please see your hard copy for actual chart.\] | MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES TO HAVE KIDS | LEAST EXPENSIVE CITIES TO HAVE KIDS | | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | 1\. New York City | 1\. Norman, Okla. | | 2\. Honolulu | 2\. Harlingen, Texas | | 3\. San Francisco | 3\. Ashland, Ohio | STUDENT DEBT College graduates in the class of 2014 are the most indebted in U.S. history, with double the debt load of borrowers 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation 1992–93 $9,320 1994–95 1999–2000 2004–05 2009–10 2014–15 $35,051 CREDIT-CARD DEBT In June 2010, total student-loan debt passed total revolving credit, most of which is credit-card debt, for the first time $826.5 billion TOTAL REVOLVING CREDIT $830 billion TOTAL STUDENT-LOAN DEBT SCREEN TIME On an average day in 2013, Americans ages 15 and up watched TV for: 2.77 HOURS Men tuned in for 24.6 minutes more than women, on average 0.15 hours spent on the phone, mail and email 0.43 hours spent on computer use and digital games WORK On average in 2013, for Americans ages 15 and older: 8.34 Hours per day worked by men with full-time jobs 7.73 Hours per day worked by women with full-time jobs IN GENERAL, THE MORE EDUCATED YOU ARE, THE LESS YOU WORK Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher worked 7.44 hr./day Those with an associate degree or some college worked 7.79 hr./day High school graduates without college worked 7.78 hr./day Those without a high school diploma worked 7.96 hr./day VACATION The pursuit of happiness doesn’t include much vacay 0 Number of paid-leave days U.S. firms are required to offer 4 Average number of unused vacation days in 2012\. Americans received an average of 14 vacation days 577,212,000 Total number of unused vacation days (1.58 million years) in 2012 WHY DON’T AMERICANS USE ALL THEIR VACATION DAYS? 27% said they were “stockpiling” them for future trips 24% found it difficult to coordinate family scheduling 35% canceled or postponed in order to work 17% prefer to cash out unused vacation days HOME OWNERSHIP Who owns your home? 65% of households are owner-occupied 34% of households are renter-occupied 1% of households have occupiers paying no cash rent INCOME INEQUALITY Cities with the largest and smallest gaps between rich and poor \[The following text appears within a map. Please see your hard copy for actual map.\] \[This article contains a table. Please see your hard copy for actual table.\] | MOST EQUAL | MOST UNEQUAL | | -------------------------- | --------------------- | | 1\. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah | 1\. Atlanta | | 2\. York-Hanover, Pa. | 2\. New Orleans | | 3\. Lancaster, Pa. | 3\. Miami | | 4\. Anchorage, Alaska | 4\. Jackson, Miss. | | 5\. Reading, Pa. | 5\. Gainesville, Fla. | HUDDLED MASSES Number of immigrants living in the U.S. in 2012, a record high 41 MILLION FOOD STAMPS What portion of all Americans have ever received food stamps? 18% TOTAL POPULATION 15% WHITE 31% BLACK 22% HISPANIC 18% OTHER NON-HISPANIC 22% DEMOCRAT 10% REPUBLICAN 17% INDEPENDENT SOURCES: TIME USE, SCREEN TIME, WORK, VACATION: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; EXPEDIA.COM; FAMILY SIZE, HOME OWNERSHIP, INCOME INEQUALITY: CENSUS.GOV, U.S. NEWS; NERDWALLET.COM; COST OF KIDS: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; STUDENT DEBT: MARK KANTROWITZ; EDVISORS.COM; CREDIT-CARD DEBT: U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE; FASTWEB.COM; VACATION DAYS: EXPEDIA.COM; HUDDLED MASSES: MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE; FOOD STAMPS: PEW RESEARCH CENTER. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/"},"headline":"What Are We Doing with Our Lives?","datePublished":"2014-08-28T11:17:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:53.387Z","description":"From the price of having kids to the cost of becoming an adult, here's a closer look","url":"https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/","keywords":["Living","The Answers Issue"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3204245/what-are-we-doing-with-our-lives/","name":"What Are We Doing with Our Lives?"}}]}] ```