Time use surveys have been used since at least 1900.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent academic and institutional sources (ILO, BMC Public Health historical review, ISER/CTUR workshop, NCRM) corroborate that time-use survey methodology dates to at or before 1900, originating with Russian zemstvo researchers. Some blurring exists between time-budget and household-budget surveys, and true time-diary studies emerged slightly later (1920s-1930s), but the core claim is well supported by specialist literature.
Sources
- Studying how people spend their time reveals how societies differ and change over time (theconversation.com)
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-019-6760-y (link.springer.com)
- https://www.ilo.org/media/416511/download (ilo.org)
- https://www.mtusdata.org/mtus/resources/linked_docs/workshop2016/02_History.pdf (mtusdata.org)
- https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/all/?id=20824 (ncrm.ac.uk)
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/russian-inequality-on-the-eve-of-revolution/A5CED37A899914A15F9CFB1777A441DF (cambridge.org)
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498310000240 (sciencedirect.com)