Americans’ Summer Activities 2013: An AARP Bulletin Survey

With an interest in learning more about activities adults are planning for this summer and on behalf of the AARP Bulletin, in April 2013, AARP Research & Strategic Analysis fielded a short telephone survey among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 individuals ages 18 and older.  To reduce response burden, the sample was randomly split in half with each group read half the list of summer activities.

Key findings include: 

• Just under half of adults of all ages (47%) plan to take a vacation this summer while about the same number (49%) do not plan to take a vacation.  One in twenty (5%) are undecided about their summer plans.
• When asked how likely they were to engage in that activity this summer, respondents said they were extremely likely or very likely to engage in four activities:
  • Visit family or friends (79%)
  • Go to or host a barbecue (71%)
  • Entertain at home (62%)
  • Go swimming or to a pool (56%)
• When compared to younger respondents, those ages 50+ said they were less likely to engage in eight activities:  go to the beach; host or go to a barbecue; go to an amusement park; go swimming or to the pool; take an adventure travel trip; go to movies; go to county or state fairs; and go camping or RV’ing.
• Younger respondents said they were more likely to engage in those eight summer activities, all of which involved activities away from the home, except for possibly barbecuing at home.
• When compared to male respondents, women said they were more likely to go to the movies (51% vs. 44%), do some gardening (51% vs. 44%), and visit a state or national park (41% vs. 33%).
• In contrast, men were more likely than women to go hunting or fishing (35% vs. 21%).
• While the majority of responders reported that they are likely to engage in the same activities at the same level as in previous years, noticeable percentages (25% or more) said they would do more of these four activities this year:
  • Host or go to a barbecue (29%)
  • Visit family or friends (28%)
  • Go swimming or to the pool (25%)
  • Entertain at home (25%)
• While the majority of responders reported that they are likely to engage in the same activities at the same level as in previous years noticeable percentages (25% or more) said they would do less of these five activities this year:
  • Go to baseball game (27%)
  • Take an adventure travel trip (26%)
  • Go to a concert (25%)
  • Go camping or RV’ing (25%)
  • Go hunting or fishing (25%)

The study was conducted for AARP via telephone by SSRS, an independent research company. Interviews were conducted from April 17 – April 21, 2013 among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents age 18 and older. Of those respondents, a total of 444 were age 18-49 and a total of 550 were age 50+. For more information, contact Albert Hollenbeck, Ph.D., at 202-434-6280.