Who Do Americans Spend Their Time With?
Who we spend our time with changes a lot over the course of our lives.
When we’re young — particularly in our teens — we spend a lot of our time with friends, parents, siblings, and extended family.
As we enter our 20s, time with friends, siblings, and parents starts to drop off quickly. Instead, we start spending an increasing amount of time with partners and children. The chart shows an average across Americans, so for those that have children the time spent with children is even higher, since the average is pulled down by those without children.
As the chart shows, this continues throughout our 30s, 40s, and 50s — over this period of their life, Americans spend much of their time with partners, children, and, unsurprisingly, co-workers.
For those 60 and older, we see a significant drop-off in time spent with co-workers. This makes sense, considering many people in the US enter retirement in their mid-60s. We see that this time is partly displaced by more time with partners.
How about the number of people we interact with? This chart suggests that the number of people with whom we interact is highest around 40, but then things change substantially after that. And this is perhaps the most conspicuous trend in the chart: above 40, people spend an increasing amount of time alone.