How many people in the US cook on an average day, has that changed over the past decade, do men and women differ, and do people still spend more time watching TV than making food? The American Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) answers all four for people 15 and older.
The short answer
On an average day in 2025, 65.2% of people 15 and older in the US spent time on food preparation and cleanup, about 2 in 3 (our arithmetic). That is BLS’s category name, and it is broader than cooking a meal: it includes cleaning up, and it counts only what a person was mainly doing at the time. People who did any spent 1.09 hours on it that day, about 65 minutes (our arithmetic).
Ten years earlier
In 2015, the share was 56.9%, so it rose 8.3 percentage points by 2025 (our arithmetic). Over the same years, the share of people watching any TV on an average day fell from 79.9% to 74.3%, and average TV time fell from 2.78 to 2.61 hours a day.
| Average day, people 15 and older | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Did food preparation and cleanup | 56.9% | 65.2% |
| Men who did it | 42.7% | 57.9% |
| Women who did it | 70.2% | 72.2% |
| Hours watching TV, average person | 2.78 | 2.61 |
Men are catching up
Men’s share rose from 42.7% in 2015 to 57.9% in 2025, up 15.2 points, while women’s rose from 70.2% to 72.2%, up 2.0 points (our arithmetic). The shift for men goes back further: BLS reported that 35 percent of men did food preparation and cleanup on an average day in 2003. In 2025, women were still more likely than men to do it. The same survey tracks exercise too; see who exercises more, US men or women.
Watching versus doing
Averaged across everyone, including people who did neither, a person spent 0.71 hours, about 43 minutes, on food preparation and cleanup on an average day in 2025, and 2.61 hours watching TV, about 3.7 times as much (our arithmetic). BLS says TV was the leisure activity that took the most time in 2025, accounting for half of all leisure time. The survey does not single out cooking shows, so it cannot say how many of those TV hours went to watching other people cook. The couch still wins; the kitchen is gaining.
A gap in the 2025 data
Because of the federal government shutdown, BLS has no 2025 survey data for September 30 to November 11, and it says the effect on the estimates cannot be quantified.
The short version
On an average day in 2025, 65.2% of people 15 and older in the US spent time on food preparation and cleanup, up from 56.9% in 2015.
Last checked: 2026-10-22, against BLS’s American Time Use Survey 2025 results (Table 1 and the news release) and its 2015 results. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “American Time Use Survey: 2025 Results”, news release USDL-26-1022, June 25, 2026, and Table 1 (2025 annual averages). https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm and https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t01.htm . Saved copies accessed Oct 21, 2026.
- S2 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “American Time Use Survey: 2015 Results”, news release USDL-16-1250, June 24, 2016, including Table 1 (2015 annual averages). https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/atus_06242016.htm . Saved copy accessed Oct 21, 2026.