What are the Germans' favourite things to do?

The year 1987 is just around the corner - and for most people in Germany that means 104 Saturdays and Sundays off, at least 9 public holidays and, of course, 30 days holiday, which can be planned for hobbies and travel, sport and relaxation. A glance at the ’87 calendar shows that every third day will be a day off (from work). And what do the Germans do with this free time?

As part of a representative survey, the BAT Leisure Research Institute asked 2000 German citizens aged 14 and over the question: „What are your personal leisure activities?“ The answers had to be found by the respondents themselves. Only what was personally important was mentioned.

The result is a qualitative ranking of personal leisure activities. And it shows that many things that were important to Germans in 1981, when the BAT Institute asked this question, have lost importance today. Other things have become much more attractive. Leisure habits have changed, as have favourite pastimes.

In the last 5 years, television has risen from 4th place to 2nd place (23 %) on the leisure scale. Cycling has even improved from 11th to 6th place (12 %). Traditional hiking, on the other hand, lost ground, slipping to 10th place with only 8 % of all mentions. And new to the list is „lazing around/sleeping in“, which is now mentioned by 6% of all Germans as a personal leisure activity.

Whether you want to laze around or be active in the new year, we would like to help you organise your free time with our leisure calendar ’87. After all, leisure time needs to be planned if it is to be fun and enjoyable.

The BAT Leisure Research Institute wishes you a relaxing holiday season and a good start to 1987.