See who Americans spend time with over their lives

Individuals typically spend less time with others as they get older

At younger ages, we spend much of our time with parents, siblings, and friends. Eventually, our lifestyle changes to include work, a spouse, and children of our own. In later life, children often move out, and spouses unfortunately pass away, leading to more time spent alone.

Visualizing how American men and women spend every hour of the day, by decade of life

Drawing on three years of Census time-use data, the tool tracks 12 activities—sleep, work, housework, caregiving, TV, and more—across age groups from the 20s through 70s. One persistent gap: women spend 45 more minutes per day on housework than men on average.

See America's loneliness and disconnection—charted

This series of graphs visually depicts various aspects of American society's connection to others, including the percentage of Americans who feel they have friends or family they can count on (90%), share of people who feel close to at least one other person (86%), and more.

Americans are retiring later than they used to

A Gallup poll from 2022 found that the percentage of adults between the ages of 55 and 74 who are retired is declining.

Explore internet usage data, including how humans consume 1.2 billion years of content yearly

About half this time consists of content from social media platforms, where the average user spends about 18.5 hours weekly. An estimated $3.66T was spent on consumer goods by online shoppers in 2025, though nonconsumer goods, such as flights and hotel stays, greatly increase this estimate.

Americans ages 30 to 34 have $44,800 in their 401(k) accounts on average

Americans ages 28 to 44 save about 13.5% of their pretax income on average, which is close to the recommended retirement savings rate of 15%.

Retirement expectations versus reality

There's a big gap between what many Americans expect to happen during retirement and what actually happens—at least according to one financial planner. In this article, the financial planner in question explores how retirement expectations can differ from reality, exploring financial considerations such as how long people expect to work part-time during retirement, and more. Read the article here.

Helping support others in older age linked to longer life

Analysis of findings from a long-term study of older couples first interviewed in 1987 and then followed for the next five years found that individuals who lend support to friends, neighbors, and relatives live longer. Non-helpers were more than twice as likely to die as helpers during the five-year period. That's even after controlling for factors including age, gender, and physical and mental health.

Europeans, on average, have double the amount of vacation time Americans have

Europeans average nearly double the amount of time off as their American counterparts. Why is that? It's due to a long history of European labor’s push for time off, including both left- and right-wing political groups that argued vacation could benefit their causes.

Super-agers: seniors 80 and above with the memory ability of people in their 50s

Studies show the number one indicator of whether someone is a "super-ager" is not diet or genetics, but the extent of their social relationships. Moreover, scans reveal noticeable physical differences in certain parts of the brain in patients with extensive social networks.

Americans are projected to inherit $105T over the next 30 years

Today, someone's financial standing has more to do with their families than any other outside factor. Of the more than $100T of projected inheritance, that money is concentrated among a few wealthy estates and families.

Hear how Ray Dalio spends his time since he retired

Dalio emphasizes finding meaningful relationships, both in work and in life. After officially retiring from his hedge fund, Dalio says he spends his time learning, reading, and trying to mentor younger generations.

8 key milestone ages in retirement

At age 50, you can make catch-up contributions to retirement accounts. At age 65, you become eligible for Medicare.

The states in America that drink the most beer

Americans, in 2020, drank on average almost twenty-six gallons of beer per adult aged twenty-one or over, over the course of the pandemic.

The average TikTok user spends 95 minutes on the app per day

According to HubSpot, the average TikTok user spends 95 minutes per day using the app, and an estimated 90% of users access TikTok daily. TikTok also has the highest average session length among social media platforms: Its users spend almost 11 minutes per session.

See how faces on magazine covers have changed over time

This piece examined an archive of Time magazine containing 3,389 issues ranging from 1923 to 2014, focusing on 327,322 faces from the archive. Read what the researchers learned.

Facebook dominated US social ad spend in the first half of 2024

This data visualization shows the social media platforms where advertisers spent the most money in the first six months of 2024, with Facebook leading the pack taking home 36.3% of US social ad spend.

Why do humans have such long childhoods?

Humans have over twice as long childhoods than other animals with similar lifespans like whales and elephants. A human child can grow for nearly 20 years before they become a reproducing adult. Researchers believe there's a connection between long childhoods and human's unusually large brain size, though the science is not totally clear. Dive into what scientists know here.

Travel in time to how people felt about major US events

Pollsters track more than just politics: From civil rights to war declarations, go back and see how people felt about major events in the US with this timeline.

The most popular American baby names by decade

In 1998, the Social Security Administration began ranking the top 1,000 most common first names for each year dating back to 1880. While that list has since been whittled down, Americans can still gain insight into the trending names of the decade. Whether it’s just for curiosity or to avoid more common choices, check out this list of popular names from the past century.

'Loveflation' is making dating more expensive and less frequent

A survey found that more than half of Americans are going on fewer dates due to rising costs, with 27% stopping altogether. Gen Z and millennials are the hardest hit, with 62% reporting changes in their dating habits due to inflation.

A boom hit after WWI, with consumerism usurping frugality as an American value

When American soldiers returned home after WWI in the 1920s, they found a country ready to spend money, make a home, and indulge in creature comforts after wartime rationing. This uptick in US wealth and production led to job opportunities for advertising experts.

Why younger workers began talking about their salaries

While some Gen Zers and millennials are becoming increasingly comfortable with talking about their salaries or hourly wages with one another, older generations often have a tough time understanding why. This article explains why the culture around talking about money has changed slightly over the last few years. Read it here.

How to help teens balance social media use and mental healthcare

While initially alluring, excessive social media use is proven to lead to increased feelings of isolation, mental health declines, increased stress, and general dissatisfaction among teens. Conducting digital audits to track screen time, adding friction (or obstacles) to app usage to reduce mindless scrolling, and investing time in offline activities and hobbies may help.

More than half of Americans polled prefer rewatching comedies to other genres

Although streamers and networks are producing fewer sitcoms than ever before, they still have a large audience. About 59.1% of Americans polled by YouGov in a 2023 survey said "Comedy" was their favorite genre to rewatch.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.