U.S. time-use data shows that food preparation is a substantial daily activity, but the average depends heavily on who is counted. In 2024, civilians age 15 and older spent 0.67 hours per day on food preparation and cleanup, while people who performed the activity averaged 1.06 hours. Older data also shows clear differences by age, gender, household responsibility, income, and food-access status.
Table of contents
- The current U.S. baseline
- How preparation time changed over time
- Differences by age
- Household responsibility and gender
- Income, SNAP participation, and food access
- Cleanup and daily timing
The current U.S. baseline
The latest national baseline in the supplied American Time Use Survey results is for 2024. The measure covers U.S. civilians age 15 and older and combines food preparation with cleanup. It is an all-person average, so it includes people who did not perform the activity on their diary day.
According to the American Time Use Survey 2024 A01 results, the population-wide average was 0.67 hours per day. That is about 40.2 minutes per day. The participation rate was 63.1%, meaning that 63.1% of people age 15 and older engaged in food preparation and cleanup on their diary day.
The average differs by gender. Men spent 0.46 hours per day, or about 27.6 minutes, and 54.2% engaged in the activity. Women spent 0.86 hours per day, or about 51.6 minutes, and 71.6% engaged in it.
The “among participants” averages are higher because they exclude people who did not report the activity that day. Among people who performed food preparation and cleanup, the 2024 average was 1.06 hours per day. Among participating men, it was 0.86 hours; among participating women, it was 1.20 hours. These are different denominators from the all-person averages and should not be treated as the length of a single recipe or cooking session.
| 2024 group | Average per day | Participation rate |
|---|---|---|
| All civilians age 15+ | 0.67 hours | 63.1% |
| Men age 15+ | 0.46 hours | 54.2% |
| Women age 15+ | 0.86 hours | 71.6% |
| Participants, all | 1.06 hours | — |
| Participating men | 0.86 hours | — |
| Participating women | 1.20 hours | — |
The official measure is broader than a stopwatch reading for dinner. It includes food preparation and beverages, serving, and, in the relevant tables, food-related cleanup. That makes it useful for understanding the daily time footprint of meals, but not for estimating how long every individual recipe takes.
How preparation time changed over time
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service reported an earlier comparison using nationally representative diary data for people age 15 and older. In the Food-Related Time Use: Changes and Demographic Differences, the average time spent preparing food rose from 23.4 minutes per day in 2004–07 to 27.5 minutes in 2014–17.
Participation also rose over those periods. The share of people preparing food on an average day was 47.3% in 2004–07 and 53.5% in 2014–17. Among people who prepared food, the activity averaged 49.5 minutes per day in 2004–07 and 51.4 minutes in 2014–17.
The all-person and participant averages describe different aspects of the same pattern. The all-person measure reflects both whether someone prepared food and how long the activity lasted. The participant measure describes time among those who reported preparation. Keeping those measures separate is important when comparing household schedules or evaluating a meal-planning routine.
The 2014–17 report also gives gender-specific preparation averages. Men age 15 and older spent 17.1 minutes per day preparing food, averaged across all men, while women spent 37.2 minutes. Among people who prepared food, men averaged 41.5 minutes and women averaged 57.2 minutes.
These historical figures should be read as statistics for their stated survey periods. They are not a claim that every household experienced the same change, and they do not independently establish what happened in years between the reported periods.
Differences by age
The 2014–17 ERS analysis shows a strong age pattern in all-person preparation time. Teenagers and young adults recorded less preparation time than working-age and older adults, while the conditional averages among participants were higher than the all-person averages.
| Age group, 2014–17 | All-person average | Participation rate | Average among participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15–17 | 6.6 minutes | 21.0% | 31.2 minutes |
| 18–24 | 12.5 minutes | 28.7% | 43.6 minutes |
| 25–64 | 29.9 minutes | 57.2% | 52.2 minutes |
| 65 and older | 31.7 minutes | 59.1% | 53.7 minutes |
People age 15–17 spent 6.6 minutes per day preparing food when averaged across the full age group. Their participation rate was 21.0%, while those who did prepare food averaged 31.2 minutes. For people age 18–24, the all-person average was 12.5 minutes, the participation rate was 28.7%, and the participant average was 43.6 minutes.
The two older groups had higher all-person averages. People age 25–64 spent 29.9 minutes per day, with 57.2% preparing food on an average day. Among participants in that age group, the average was 52.2 minutes. People age 65 and older spent 31.7 minutes per day across the full group, with a 59.1% participation rate and a 53.7-minute participant average.
For meal planning, these figures show why a single “typical cooking time” can be misleading. A low all-person average may reflect limited participation, not very short preparation among the people who actually cook. The age groups also cover broad life stages, so the statistics describe population groups rather than individual households.
Household responsibility and gender
A 2023 ERS table focuses on adults age 18 and older and connects food preparation and cleanup time with the amount of meal-preparation responsibility reported by the interviewee. The 2023 responsibility table reports a clear gradient.
Adults with no meal-preparation responsibility averaged 8.5 minutes per day. Those with a little responsibility averaged 20.8 minutes, followed by 34.7 minutes for some responsibility, 52.6 minutes for a lot of responsibility, and 55.1 minutes for all responsibility. The categories describe reported responsibility, not a recommendation for how much time meal planning should require.
The gender-specific values show a similar pattern with different levels. Men with no responsibility averaged 6.6 minutes per day; men with a little responsibility averaged 18.4 minutes; men with some responsibility averaged 29.7 minutes; men with a lot of responsibility averaged 38.4 minutes; and men with all responsibility averaged 38.0 minutes.
For women, the corresponding averages were 14.4 minutes with no responsibility, 26.0 minutes with a little responsibility, and 41.4 minutes with some responsibility. Women with a lot of responsibility averaged 60.7 minutes per day, while women with all responsibility averaged 63.6 minutes.
The difference between “a lot” and “all” is small for men in this table, while the women’s averages are higher in the “all” category. Because the table reports averages for groups, it does not explain why individuals reported different responsibility levels. It does show that the division of meal work is closely associated with measured daily time.
Income, SNAP participation, and food access
The ERS analysis also reports preparation time by household income relative to the poverty threshold for 2014–16. People age 15 and older in households above 185% of the poverty threshold spent 24.3 minutes per day preparing food. Those at or below 185% and above 130% spent 30.8 minutes, while those at or below 130% spent 34.7 minutes.
Preparation participation followed a related pattern in the reported groups. In households above 185% of the poverty threshold, 52.6% prepared food on an average day. The rate was 55.6% among people in households at or below 130% of the threshold. The source reports these thresholds and rates for the stated 2014–16 period; they should not be read as current income cutoffs.
SNAP participation and food sufficiency were also associated with different averages. SNAP participants age 15 and older spent 36.5 minutes per day preparing food, compared with 26.4 minutes among non-SNAP participants. People reporting enough food to eat spent 27.1 minutes per day, while people reporting not enough food to eat spent 30.4 minutes.
These are descriptive comparisons, not evidence that income, SNAP participation, or food sufficiency alone causes a particular amount of preparation time. Household size, schedules, access to food, and other circumstances may differ between groups, but the supplied ERS statistics do not quantify those factors here.
Cleanup and daily timing
Food-related cleanup is a distinct part of the meal-time picture. In 2014–17, people age 15 and older spent 7.7 minutes per day on food-related cleanup when averaged across the full population. The participation rate was 22.6%, and people who performed cleanup averaged 34.1 minutes per day.
The gender differences were also visible in cleanup. Men spent 3.7 minutes per day across all men, while women spent 11.5 minutes across all women. On an average day, 11.8% of men and 32.7% of women performed food-related cleanup. Among people who performed cleanup, men averaged 31.0 minutes and women averaged 35.1 minutes.
Preparation was not evenly distributed across the day. Among people who prepared food in 2014–17, 14.4% did so during the 7 a.m. hour, identified in the ERS report as the first reported daily peak. The largest reported peak occurred during the 5 p.m. hour, when 27.9% prepared food.
Together, the preparation and cleanup statistics show why meal planning can involve more than active cooking. The measured activity includes preparation, serving, beverages, and relevant cleanup, and the daily averages change depending on whether the denominator is everyone or only people who performed the activity. For comparing routines, keep the survey year or range, geography, age coverage, and denominator attached to every figure.