Changing Society Briefing 9: Changing patterns of leisure and their impact on charities

Introduction

This is the ninth in the Heyheyjoe briefing series, looking at external social, economic, and demographic changes and their impact on charities and non-profit organisations. This one focuses on leisure time and leisure expenditure and how those changes impact charities.

The rise in leisure time

The rise in leisure time is driven by a number of factors. The decrease in work time – in 1970, we did an average of 30 hours a week, while it was 23 hours a week in 2014 (https://ilcuk.org.uk/fewer-of-us-are-adding-life-to-years-as-we-add-years-to-life/ ). This frees up more time for leisure. We have also seen a rise in labour-saving lifestyles – more take-outs, less cooking in, more washer/dryers and less twin-tubs and washing lines – which also frees up time.

The rise in disposable income

Alongside the rise in leisure time is a rise in disposable income. Figure 1 shows this rise over the last 60 years. In 1964, there was a disposable income of roughly £2000 per household; now it's around £6000 per person.

Figure 1: The rise in disposable income over the last 60 years

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/crxx/ukea

This rise in disposable income and rise in free time has led to a dramatic increase in international tourists – see figure 2. In 1995, there were 600 million international tourists globally, and by 2019, this figure had tripled to 1.8 billion before Covid hit, and Europe is the biggest portion of that.

Figure 2: The rise in international tourists

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/tourism

The rise in in-home leisure expenditure  

It's not so simple as to say that all free time goes on holidays and travel. In-home leisure has grown massively – a type of expenditure that hardly existed 40 years ago. People now spend their money on multiple streaming TV subscriptions, gym and exercise activities such as Peloton, and gaming activities such as Xbox and PlayStation. The ILC analysis of data for 2022 indicated a growth in in-home leisure spending and a decline in out-of-home leisure spending, with all the consequences that has for sport and a healthy lifestyle (https://ilcuk.org.uk/fewer-of-us-are-adding-life-to-years-as-we-add-years-to-life/.

Changing leisure time by age and gender, and over the years

The growth in leisure time and expenditure is not evenly spread across the population. ILC analysis shows that in 2022/22, people in the top 10% income bracket spent almost seven times more a week (£15.20) on sports activities than those in the lowest 10% (£2.20). The evidence from ILC also appears to be that use of leisure varies over the life span – more in-home leisure during working years and more out-of-home leisure as retirement approaches – the apocryphal 6 cruises a year generation.

The implications for charities

There are two broad and very different implications of these changes. Broadly speaking, the growth of the leisure industry matters because it eats into the time that people have to volunteer, and the money that they have to give. This is because both the leisure industry and the charity sector are competing for ‘disposable’ income and time.

The impact on time. People don’t volunteer rather than sleep or work or do childcare, or do essential chores. They volunteer with the time that is left after those things are done – in other words, disposable or free time. So the time for leisure competes with the time for volunteering. A retired person who goes on 6 cruises a year has less time to volunteer. A parent who takes their children away on overseas holidays or mini breaks has less time to take their children on volunteering at weekends. Volunteer managers need to think about how they make their volunteering as compelling and enjoyable as the other options available to people’s use of time. Given the decline of volunteering among older people, in particular, it may well be that the battle is being lost, as cruises and a winter in Tenerife win out.

The impact on giving

The worry about the growth in leisure and what it might do to giving has the same roots as the impact on volunteering. People give money out of their disposable income, what is left after the mortgage and bills are paid. If they spend more money on holidays, keeping fit, mini-breaks, Netflix and Sky sports subscriptions, there is less left over for giving. And let's face it, a mini-break is almost certainly more rewarding than a donation to charity of the same amount.

One solution to the growth in leisure: events that combine giving and living. Some events neatly combine the public’s love of charities and love of leisure. The Great North Run, the London Marathon, CRUK’s Race for Life and Macmillan’s World’s Greatest Coffee Morning are but four examples. The heart of their success is that it lets people do something they enjoy (running, the outdoors, socialising, etc) while giving either time or money to charity.

If the sector is to counteract the growth in leisure, then we need more events that go with the flow of people’s lives, rather than try and cut across the strong current of the social trends in how people live their lives.

Joe Saxton

November 2025

This briefing is part of a series looking at the impact of social, economic, technological, and demographic changes on charities and non-profit organisations. We have already published a briefing on:

·      the ageing population (briefing no 1)

·      changing numbers of single people and fertility rates (no 2)

·      the impact of growing government debt (no 3).

·      Changes in the way we die and its implications. (no 4)

·      wealth, inequality and poverty in the UK (no 5)

·      changing patterns of religious observance (no 6)

·      The rise of consumer choice and its implications for charities (no 7)

·      How individuals triumph over policy in a post-truth world (no 8)

In future issues, we will look at the impact of digital, the growing cult of the individual, and changing patterns of support for different causes. Go to www.heyheyjoe.info for more information.