The value of free time in Nova Scotia : Genuine progress index, measuring sustainable development

Measuring Sustainable Development Free time has explicit value in the Genuine Progress Index, and losses in free time should be counted as real losses in value, and as a decline in one key dimension of human capital, since such loss reflects a direct decrease in quality of life and an indirect threat to health, economic productivity, and human wellbeing. [...] Because of its widely acknowledged value, benefits, and contribution to wellbeing, leisure and free time are explicitly valued in the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) as one of the key conditions of wellbeing and therefore constitute one of the 20 core components of the GPI. [...] This study examines several aspects of the use of free time: • How do Nova Scotians fare relative to the rest of Canada and to other countries in terms of the leisure time available to them? [...] In the rest of Canada (Canada less Nova Scotia), free time averaged 5.7 hours a day in 1992, declining to 5.47 hours in 2005, narrowing the difference between Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada from 0.48 hour to 0.2 hour (Figure 1). [...] Differences between Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada in free time use and in changes in time use patterns over time thus partly reflect demographic differences and changes.