Just 10 years ago, Germans considered their job to be more important than their leisure time. This former ideal of life has now fallen to fifth place on the scale of values. According to a representative survey by the BAT Leisure Research Institute, three „Fs“ give meaning to life today: family, friends and leisure.

In the BAT survey, 2,000 citizens from all over Germany gave their very personal assessment of individual areas of life (from „very important“ to „unimportant“). The results showed that 85 % of all respondents rated leisure time as very important or at least important. This means that leisure time is already the third most important of all life ideals. Only friends and family rank higher.

However, the leading position of the family is not without danger. „This is because the subjective assessment of areas of life is often more wishful thinking than reality,“ says Prof Dr Horst W. Opaschowski from the BAT Leisure Research Institute. Assessing the family as important and doing things together with the family are two different things. The lowest common denominator is often just watching television. Otherwise, family members often drift apart in their leisure time - in the pub or cinema, leisure clubs or sports clubs. The circle of friends and personal leisure hobbies threaten to take over from the family.

Perhaps 14 to 19-year-olds are more honest than their parents. For them, leisure and friends are already the more important areas of life by a clear margin (97 and 95 % respectively). Family is only in fourth place - after work, which is rated above average in this age group at 87 %.

Leisure and education are becoming increasingly important

In a comparison of the generations, leisure and friends rank ahead of work and career for young and old. Only those aged 40-49 rate their job more highly. In particular, the self-employed and executives/civil servants, who are also largely in this age group, agree almost one hundred per cent that their job is of central importance in their lives. By contrast, one in four people earning up to DM 3,000 consider their job to be less important or completely unimportant (25 %).

There are also clear differences between the genders in the subjective assessment of individual areas of life. For example, the family is rated higher by women than by men (93 % compared to 88 %). The opposite is true for leisure time. 89 % of men consider it to be at least important, 42 % even very important. For women, the figures are only 81 and 31 % respectively.

Education is rated surprisingly highly. More than three quarters of the population favour education, free from external pressure to perform and professional exploitation. This refers to education for oneself, personal development and further education in leisure activities. The younger generation of 20-34 year olds in particular emphasises the importance of education for their own lives (84 %). Voluntary learning in their free time, which is fun and meaningful, also gives life a new meaning.