INDIA - Time Use Survey (TUS), January 2019-December 2019

In Time Use Survey (TUS), a rural village was notionally divided into a number of subunits (SU) of more or less equal population during the preparation of frame. Census 2011 population of villages was projected by applying suitable growth rates and the number of SUs formed in a village was determined apriori. The above procedure of SU formation was implemented in the villages with population more than or equal to 1000 as per Census 2011. In the remaining villages, no SU was formed. SUs were formed in urban sector also. The procedure was similar to that adopted in rural areas except that SUs were formed on the basis of households in the Urban Frame Survey (UFS) frame instead of population, since UFS frame does not have population. Each UFS block with number of households more than or equal to 250 was divided into a number of SUs. In the remaining UFS blocks, no SU was formed.

A stratified two stage design was adopted for the TUS. The first stage units (FSU) were villages/UFS blocks/sub-units (SUs) as per the situation. The ultimate stage units (USU) were households in both the sectors.

In the rural areas, stratification was made as follows: (a) all inhabited villages within each NSS State region constituted a rural stratum and (b) a special stratum, in the rural areas only, was formed at all-India level before the strata are formed in each State/UT. This stratum comprised all the uninhabited villages as per Census 2011 belonging to allStates/U Ts. In urban areas strata were formed within each NSS State region on the basis of size class of towns as per Census 2011.

Sub-Stratification in rural areas: In rural areas, three groups of villages were formed within each stratum (except special rural stratum) as follows:
Group 1: all villages (Panchayat wards for Kerala) with Census 2011 population less than 250
Group 2: all villages (Panchayat wards for Kerala) with Census 2011 population more than or equal to 250 but less than 500
Group 3: remaining villages

The sample size for a rural stratum was allocated among 3 groups in proportion to Census population. Sub-strata was demarcated in Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 respectively in such a way that each sub-stratum comprises a group of villages (all SUs of a village considered together) of the arranged frame and have more or less equal Census population within the respective group.

Sub-Stratification in urban areas: Sub-strata were demarcated in such a way that eachsub-stratum comprised a group of UFS blocks (all SUs within the block taken together)having more or less equal number of households.


A total of 10004 FSUs were allocated for TUS, 2019 at all-India level. The total number of sample FSUs were allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to their population as per Census 2011 subject to a minimum sample allocation of 16 FSUs for each State/UT.