Here's What the American Household Looks Like in 2022
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The Good Housekeeping Institute has long explored the way people — particularly women — run their homes. Over the years, we’ve completed smaller, more segmented surveys and have reviewed other research on household tasks. But in 2015, we ran a larger survey to examine what had shifted in American homes in light of changes to the workforce, relationships, children and technology.
In 2022, two years after the onset of the pandemic, we decided to run an updated version of that 2015 survey in order to check the pulse of America today. What’s changed — and what hasn’t? Has the role of women evolved within the home? How much time are people spending on cooking, cleaning and food shopping?
For this recent survey, we polled more than 2,600 women of all ages; 74% were married, 86% owned their own home and 42% had children 18 or younger. They shared insight into their habits, stresses, pets, chores and more to offer a snapshot of the average American household in 2022.
Most reported that they spent 4 or more hours cooking and 4 or fewer hours cleaning or doing laundry each week. Is that work becoming more equitable between partners? Read on for our findings on that and more.
The division of labor at home is becoming more evenly split.
The share of household tasks is becoming more equitable between partners compared with responses from those who took our survey in 2015. Since our last survey, there’s been a 21% increase in tasks being equally divided. A closer look at six major chore categories including yard work, cleaning, laundry, food shopping, washing dishes and cooking, shows the largest increase in equity happened in cooking and washing dishes, at 55% and 42% respectively; at just 11%, the lowest increase was seen in yard work.
Said one respondent: “We do what we enjoy. I like to do the laundry and vacuuming; my partner likes cooking and dusting.”
Some respondents share their home with less-common pets.
A lot of pet-owning respondents had a dog, and nearly a third of the pet owners live with a cat. But we also saw some new contenders for animal BFFs:
41 told us they have pet birds
29 say they keep chickens
29 have a pet turtle or tortoise
Kids are stepping up on certain household tasks.
Our results showed that the respondents are still doing the lion's share of work around the house, but many reported that their children are responsible for these tasks:
?? Taking out the garbage
?? Washing dishes
?? Vacuuming
?? Pet care
Respondents reported mixed emotions about social media.
We asked what respondents thought about social media’s effect on their relationships with friends or family, work and mental health. Some had issues with it, but some credited it with pushing them out of their comfort zone and helping them feel more connected.
Many report that the pandemic has changed their satisfaction with certain aspects of their lives.
The pandemic may have caused a dip in satisfaction with certain aspects of our lives, with fewer people stating that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their career and mental health in 2022. The good news: Overall life satisfaction stayed steady, as did satisfaction with relationships with friends.
You can select only one for life.
We asked respondents to choose between life's joys and certain privileged perks — and we discovered some clear winners. Sex won out over coffee, with 51% of respondents choosing the former; meanwhile when faced with choosing between a personal chef or a house cleaner, 68% of people opted for the cooking help.
80% of respondents said they enjoy gardening.
For the garden lovers — include the 36% that said they garden regularly — our outdoor expert recommends this trusty trowel from Fiskars for its comfortable handle, which is designed to reduce fatigue.
What would you do with an hour of free time?
We asked what respondents would want to do — and actually would do — if they had an extra hour alone at home.
Want to do:
Would actually do:
Which generation is the tidiest? (The answer might surprise you.)
Gen Z is keeping it clean! A whopping 58% of respondents ages 18 to 24 said their homes were cleaner and more organized than the ones they grew up in. (Thanks, #cleantok!) While most respondents in our survey reported that they were just happy if their houses were presentable, 25% of respondents ages 18 to 24 said they identified with the statement “I’m a bit fussy. My house is virtually spotless.” (Just 14% of respondents ages 55 to 64 said the same.)
People are loving robot vacs.
Many in our survey singled out these devices for lightening their load. The experts in our Cleaning Lab were impressed with the Roborock S7 Robot Vacuum and Mop, which they say is easy to set up and provided great, full-coverage cleaning — especially when mopping bare floors by using sound waves to scrub away stuck-on messes.
One survey found that women spend at least 2.5 full days a week doing chores.
61 hours! That’s the minimum per week the majority of women spent on housework and child care in the beginning of the pandemic, according to an April 2020 LeanIn.org survey.
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