Which Countries Spend the Most Waking Hours in Front of Screens?

Mobile phones, TVs, and computers have become so integrated in our daily routines that they’re often the first thing we look at in the morning and the last at night. But the total time spent with our screens in between varies by country, device, and activity.

A study(Opens in a new window) from ElectronicsHub quantifies how much time residents in 45 countries around the world spend in front of screens during waking hours.

The researchers looked at country-level screen-time data from DataReportal’s Digital 2023: Global Overview Report(Opens in a new window), combined with the average sleeping time for residents in each country from Sleep Cycle(Opens in a new window), to calculate the percentage of awake hours were used looking at each category of device.

South Africa emerged as a clear winner in overall screen time. Its residents spend over half of the day (58.2%), or 9.5 hours, in front of a screen, followed by Brazilians at 56.61%. Surprisingly, despite Japan’s love for all things gaming and technology, it ranked the lowest of any country in the study at an average of 21.7%, or 3 hours 45 minutes per day with screens.

Americans were found to spend 42.58% of their day on screens (7.5 hours), and most European countries averaged around 35% (6 hours).

(Credit: Electronics Hub)

The statistics look a bit different when broken down by device. In terms of most mobile-phone usage, Filipinos take the cake, spending almost a third of their day on their phones (32.53%), followed by Brazil (32.46%), South Africa (31.52%), and Thailand (30.48%).

Americans spend an average 21% of their waking hours on their phones, equivalent to 3.5 hours per day, compared with slightly more for Russians (22%), and slightly less in China (19.5%). Japan, again, scored the lowest of any country in the study, with 11% of the day or (1 hour 54 minutes) spent on the phone on average.

(Credit: Electronics Hub)

In terms of computer usage, South Africa is back on top with 26.69% of the day, followed by Russia (25.87%) and Colombia (24.68%). Computer-heavy administrative jobs are “extremely popular” in Colombia, the study notes.

(Credit: Electronics Hub)

When looking at time spent gaming, Saudi Arabia comes in at number one, with 11.47%, (2 hours) per day on average. Saudi Arabia has invested a whopping $37.8 billion into game development in the hopes of becoming the world’s biggest gaming hub, according(Opens in a new window) to Bloomberg.

Thailand (10.3%) and India (9.91%) are home to the next biggest gaming populations. Japan, the home of Mario and other beloved games, spends the least amount of time gaming, at just 2.51% or 26 minutes a day. The US is the sixth-biggest gaming country, with residents playing for 8.64% of the day or an hour and 25 minutes on average.

(Credit: Electronics Hub)

Social media is the last dimension of screen time the study considered. Here, South Africa is back on top, with its citizens spending 22.56% of their day, or 3 hours and 45 minutes, scrolling Facebook, TikTok, and other popular platforms. Brazil and the Philippines follow, at 22.37% and 21.91%, respectively.

Japan, again, has the lowest average time spent on social media, with just 4.92% of the day, or 51 minutes, on average.

(Credit: Electronics Hub)

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