Social Sustainability
Time Poverty
Definition
Time poverty is the condition of having insufficient discretionary time after meeting obligations — paid work, unpaid care and domestic work, commuting — to rest, participate, learn or choose. Time-use surveys show it is strongly gendered: women perform the large majority of the world's unpaid care work (an ILO-estimated three-quarters), leaving them time-poorer than men at every income level, and the condition compounds income poverty by blocking education, formal employment and civic participation.
References
Source imported for editorial provenance.
This reference provides supporting context for how “Time Poverty” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The concept structures time-use statistics, gender policy (SDG 5. 4 unpaid care), infrastructure investment cases (water and energy access as time gains), and working-time debates.
Why it matters
Sustainability asks people to change how they live; time poverty decides who has the hours to do it.