--- title: Men and Housework: Where Guys Contribute the Most description: A new study on the amount of housework performed by women versus men across dozens of countries has found that, while women still put in vastly more time keeping the house together, the disparity in how much men contribute has gradually decreased in most nations over the past 50 years. canonical: https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-01T18:43:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:17.232Z og:title: See Where in the World Guys Do the Least Housework og:description: And where women do the most og:url: https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7388e60d4ed9366d/6988a49abc6cfcdde63de722/gettyimages-590173301.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Man vacuuming under chair in living room og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Where in the World Guys Do the Least Housework twitter:description: And where women do the most twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7388e60d4ed9366d/6988a49abc6cfcdde63de722/gettyimages-590173301.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Where in the World Guys Do the Least Housework  by [Chris Wilson](/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Sep 1, 2016 6:43 PM CUT  Hero Images—Getty Images/Hero Images  by [Chris Wilson](/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Sep 1, 2016 6:43 PM CUT A [new study](http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol35/16/default.htm "undefined") on the amount of housework performed by women versus men across dozens of countries has found that, while [women still put](http://business.time.com/2012/06/28/more-women-are-in-the-workforce-so-why-are-we-still-doing-so-many-chores/ "undefined") in [vastly more time](http://time.com/2895235/men-housework-women/ "undefined") keeping the house together, the disparity in how much men contribute has gradually decreased in most nations over the past 50 years. “There is a general movement in the direction of greater gender equality, but with significant country differences in both the level and the pace of convergence,” write the study’s authors, Oxford researchers Evrim Altintas and Oriel Sullivan. The following chart uses the most recent figures for every country in the study that has reported data since 1990, visualizing both how much men and women contribute to housework and the disparity between them. Housework is defined in the study as “cleaning, cooking, and clothes care.” While Norwegian men contribute the most, at 72 minutes per day, Danish households saw the highest gender parity, with women putting in just over an hour more per day in housework. Canada and the United States were close second and thirds. At the other end of the spectrum, Italian women both did the most housework (over three-and-a-half hours a day) and suffered the largest disparity–unsurprising, given that Italian men contributed a mere 38 minutes a day, as of the most recent data from 2008. **Methodology** The information for the 16 countries in this chart–all those reporting data at least as recent as 1990–where collected as follows: 2010 (United States, Canada); 2009 (Finland, France, Spain); 2008 (Italy); 2006 (Australia); 2005 (United Kingdom, Netherland); 2003 (Poland); 2001 (Denmark, Germany); 2000 (Norway, Yugoslavia/Slovenia); 1991 (Israel, Sweden). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/"},"headline":"See Where in the World Guys Do the Least Housework","datePublished":"2016-09-01T18:43:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:17.232Z","description":"And where women do the most","url":"https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/","keywords":["motto","gender","gender gap","housework"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7388e60d4ed9366d/6988a49abc6cfcdde63de722/gettyimages-590173301.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chris Wilson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7388e60d4ed9366d/6988a49abc6cfcdde63de722/gettyimages-590173301.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Man vacuuming under chair in living room","caption":"Man vacuuming under chair in living room","creditText":"Hero Images—Getty Images/Hero Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4476447/see-where-in-the-world-guys-do-the-least-housework/","name":"See Where in the World Guys Do the Least Housework"}}]}] ```