Making unpaid care work visible: What time data shows and what mental load can hide

What unpaid care work means in daily life

Unpaid care work becomes easier to see when people record time spent on cooking, cleaning, shopping, care, support and planning. Time studies do exactly that. They show many tasks that are easy to miss. Even so, they do not capture every thought or short conversation. The need to keep track of everything may also be missing. The figures are important, but they are not complete. They describe averages for large groups. They do not tell us how work is shared in one home. Readers should always look at the method and its limits. This helps prevent quick judgments. It also makes it easier to look at your own situation calmly without turning an average into a rule for every family.^{1, 2}

Time alone cannot answer every question. The European CARE Survey also asks who plans tasks, how often they happen and who feels responsible. UN Women explains why direct care, supervision and being on call may appear differently in a survey. These sources add to the German time figures. They do not replace them because they measure different things.^{3, 5}

The ILO looks at another part of the topic. Its report counts people who are outside the labour force because of care duties. It does not measure everyone who provides care or their daily hours. It also does not measure personal mental load. This shows why the exact question behind a source always belongs with the result.^{5, 6}

What the German figures show

Destatis reports an average of 24 hours and 58 minutes of unpaid work per week for people aged 18 and older in 2022. The figure was 20 hours and 26 minutes for men. It was 29 hours and 18 minutes for women. The gap was therefore 8 hours and 52 minutes per week. Destatis updated these figures on 6 June 2025 with newer population data.¹

The individual tasks also differ. Women spent an average of 6 hours and 38 minutes per week on kitchen work. Men spent 3 hours and 36 minutes. For cleaning and laundry, the table gives 6 hours and 20 minutes for women. It gives 2 hours and 47 minutes for men. The figures for shopping and household planning were closer.¹

For care, nursing and support within the household, the table gives 3 hours and 32 minutes for women. It gives 1 hour and 51 minutes for men. Men spent more time on gardening and repair work. Men also spent more time in paid work. The total recorded workload was closer between the two groups than the separate areas.¹

How the time figures are produced

The quality report explains how a day becomes a statistic. After checks, the study included 9,774 households, 19,526 people aged ten and older, and 57,769 diary days. Each person recorded three days. A day ran from 4 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next morning. It was split into blocks of ten minutes.²

Each block had one main activity. A second activity could be added. According to the report, very short tasks under ten minutes were often left out. When several things happened at once, the longer or more important task became the main activity. A short talk, a quick thought or remembering an appointment did not always get its own place.

Taking part was voluntary. Destatis chose households using set targets and later adjusted the results to match the population. Even so, people with more education were more strongly represented. People without German citizenship were less strongly represented, especially when their German was limited. These limits do not make the data useless. They show where the average fits well and where more care is needed.²

What the European CARE Survey adds

The second CARE Survey covers all 27 EU countries. Its technical report lists 65,202 people aged 16 to 74. The survey ran from October to December 2024. Participants came from online panels and were not chosen at random. Set targets for sex, age and region, plus later weights, were used to make the groups more comparable.^{3, 4}

Across the EU, 60 percent of women involved in housework said they cooked, cleaned or did laundry every day. The figure for men was 34 percent. Daily planning and organising were reported by 32 percent of women and 22 percent of men. Weekly food shopping was almost equal, at 67 percent for women and 68 percent for men.³

For care of their own children, EIGE separates several tasks. These include supervision, comfort, physical care, planning, leisure and help with schoolwork. Women more often said they carried the larger share of responsibility. Men more often described the split as equal. These are reports of frequency and personal views. They are not a full time record for the whole day.^{3, 4}

What mental load means in these figures

EIGE uses mental load for the part of care work that involves planning, organising and keeping track. This may include appointments, shopping or household tasks. UN Women describes a similar problem in measurement. Supervision and being on call are not always separate from other tasks. They can continue during paid work, free time or housework.^{3, 5}

The German diary can record mental work when a person enters it on purpose. The guidance even gives thinking about shopping as an example. Even then, the person must notice the thought as a task, remember it later and write it down. UN Women also shows that diaries may record too little care when two things happen at once. Recall surveys may count that time more broadly.^{2, 5}

The CARE Survey makes planning more visible because it asks about it directly. It measures frequency and felt responsibility rather than minutes. There is therefore no complete minute count for mental load. A gap in a diary cannot simply be treated as hidden planning either. The safe conclusion is simple: each method sees one part. Quick shifts of thought and ongoing responsibility may remain outside the frame.^{2, 3, 5}

Why the sources answer different questions

The Destatis table asks how long selected tasks take in Germany. The CARE Survey also asks about frequency and sharing across the EU. Its percentages cannot be added to the German hours. The sources can still build a clearer picture together. To do that, the unit, year, age group and region must stay visible.^{1, 3}

The technical reports explain how people were selected and how answers were checked. Destatis relied on three diary days for each person. EIGE used online panel members, set targets and later weights. Both methods show patterns in large groups. They have different weak points and should not be compared as if they were the same.^{2, 4}

UN Women compares different survey tools. The ILO asks a labour market question instead. For 2023, the ILO estimates that 748 million people aged 15 and older were outside the labour force because of care duties. This included 708 million women and 40 million men. The figures use data from 125 countries and further estimates. They are not household time records.^{5, 6}

How to read the figures with care

The six sources fit together when each figure stays with its own question. A simple checklist can help. Separate duration, frequency, felt responsibility and labour force status. Then check who was asked and which year the figure covers. Finally, ask whether the result was observed, adjusted with weights or estimated for countries with missing data.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

1. Start with the unit and the group. The Destatis figures are weekly hours for people aged 18 and older in Germany.^{1, 2}
2. Then check the question. The CARE Survey separates tasks, planning, frequency and personal views of responsibility.^{3, 4}
3. Notice the blind spot. UN Women shows that supervision and being on call can appear differently with different questions.⁵
4. Stay within the scope. The ILO figure only covers people outside the labour force who name care as the reason.⁶

This checklist does not judge a household. It only shows what kind of claim each source can support. The limits matter. They include short or simultaneous tasks in diaries, selection through online panels and different questions across countries. Estimates for countries with missing data also belong in the picture. Clear limits make a number more useful, not weaker.^{2, 4, 5, 6}

Making unpaid care work easier to handle at home

If you recognise your own life in the figures, you do not have to change your whole routine at once. A small check can be a good start. For a few days, write down the tasks you do and the things you keep track of in your head. Include jobs that are quick but return often. Appointments, shopping, school messages, prescriptions and planning what will be needed next all belong on the list. Once this unpaid care work is visible, it becomes easier to talk about it calmly.

1. Collect everything in one place first. Do not decide whether a task is important enough yet. This step is only meant to give your mind more space.
2. Then mark what is needed today, what can wait and what you can choose to drop. Not every open task has to be completed.
3. Talk about responsibility instead of single favours. Agree who will fully own a task and remember the next steps as well.
4. Ask for specific help. A visible list makes it easier to show what you cannot manage and where another person can support you.

BodySeasons offers the free Clear Head list for this first step. It is not a strict task list. You record thoughts as calm cards and sort them by dragging. An entry can be completed, changed, deleted or consciously released. It is fine for something to move down when it is not important right now. The list does not assign tasks automatically and does not include sharing. It can still give you a clear starting point for a conversation with someone who can help.

The goal is not to measure every minute or plan a perfect routine. It is to reduce pressure in your mind and make choices visible. It may be enough to hand over one task, lower one expectation or remove something from this week. If the strain stays very high or strongly affects sleep, mood or health, support from a counselling service or a medical professional may also be useful.

What you can take from the data

At group level, a clear pattern appears. Women spent more time on unpaid work on average in the German study. Across the EU, women also more often reported a larger role in many daily tasks and in planning. The ILO shows a large gap among people outside the labour force because of care. None of these sources automatically describes one household.^{1, 3, 6}

The limit is also clear. A diary mainly sees named blocks of time. An online survey records answers about frequency and responsibility. A methods study compares tools. A labour report counts a narrowly defined group. Together, they make care work easier to see. Planning, supervision and keeping track appear in part. Some of that work still remains outside every single figure.^{2, 4, 5, 6}