Changes of time use of the town population in Latvia

The first study of weekly time budgets of the republic population was performed in 1971–1973 to ascertain the expenditure of working and non-working time for different kinds of activities concerning qualitative and quantitative reproduction of the population. A repeated study was performed in 1987 to determine changes in time use and ways to improve socio-economic conditions in order to optimize the structure of activities. This article discusses ways in which the two studies varied, with regard to the questions asked and the results obtained.