The most common leisure activities among people in Britain are home-based, or social, such as visiting relatives or friends.
Watching television is by far the most popular leisure pastime. Nearly every household has a television set, and average viewing time is over 25 hours a week. The majority of households also have a video recorder.
Other regular pastimes include listening to the radio and to recorder music. About 70 per cent of the population listen to local and national radio on an average day. There has been a dramatic rise in the sale of compact discs in recent years. The number of households with a home computer has increased to over one-quarter.
Many people in their spare time enjoy reading (over 50 per cent belong to a library), gardening, do-it-yourself home improvements, undertaking voluntary work, going out for a meal or drink or to the cinema. More daily newspapers, national and regional, are sold for every person in Britain than in most other developed countries. On an average day 56 per cent of people over the age of 15 read a national morning paper; 70 per cent read a Sunday newspaper.
The British are renowned as animal lovers, and about half of all household have a pet, most commonly dogs and cats.