DIY craft statistics show a hobby that spans personal wellbeing, family life, learning, and retail demand. Recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Hobbycraft describe how much time people spend on creative activities, why they craft, and which skills and materials are attracting attention. The geographies and measurement periods differ, so each figure below is identified by its source and date.
Table of contents
- How much time people spend on crafts
- Who crafts and how often
- Wellbeing and achievement
- Crafting with children
- How people learn and find ideas
- The crafts people want to try
- Retail signals from craft demand
How much time people spend on crafts
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey reported that, in 2024, people doing arts and crafts as a hobby spent an average of 125 minutes per participating day. That is 2.08 hours per participant day. The measure applies to people who participated on the day measured, rather than the entire population.
The same 2024 BLS release gives useful context for other personal-interest activities:
| Personal-interest activity | Average time per participant day | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and crafts | 125 minutes (2.08 hours) | 2024, United States |
| Other hobbies and collecting | 151 minutes (2.51 hours) | 2024, United States |
| Classes for personal interest | 119 minutes | 2024, United States |
| Music for personal interest | 103 minutes | 2024, United States |
| Research or homework for a personal-interest class | 96 minutes | 2024, United States |
| Writing for personal interest | 95 minutes | 2024, United States |
These comparisons put DIY craft time close to other focused leisure activities. They should not be read as a ranking of total annual participation: the BLS figures describe the average duration on days when participants performed each activity.
The BLS National Hobby Month 2025 material provides a separate 2023 comparison across activities. Arts and entertainment other than sports averaged 2.65 hours per participant day, while playing games averaged 2.48 hours. Volunteer activities averaged 2.11 hours, lawn and garden care 1.87 hours, relaxing and thinking 1.84 hours, and reading for personal interest 1.61 hours. Sports, exercise, or recreation averaged 1.48 hours, and computer use for leisure excluding games averaged 1.46 hours.
The same 2023 figures put food and drink preparation at 0.88 hours, walking at 0.85 hours, and walking, exercising, and playing with animals at 0.81 hours per participant day. Watching television averaged 3.62 hours, while attending sporting or recreational events averaged 3.16 hours. For comparison with 2022, arts and entertainment other than sports fell from 3.08 to 2.65 hours, playing games from 2.59 to 2.48, and lawn and garden care from 2.01 to 1.87. Reading rose from 1.58 to 1.61 hours, while relaxing and thinking rose from 1.64 to 1.84.
Who crafts and how often
Hobbycraft’s Power of Making 2025 research surveyed 5,941 individuals in Great Britain in 2024. Its sample also included a booster group of 1,501 people who had experienced mental health difficulties in the previous 12 months and 426 Hobbycraft customers. These sample details matter because the results combine broad survey responses with focused groups.
In that research, 44% of respondents said they craft and another 7% said they do not craft but would like to. A separate figure reported that 25% craft weekly or monthly: 15% craft weekly, while 29% of people with mental health problems craft weekly or monthly. Women were more likely than men to craft weekly, at 21% versus 10%.
The regional figures cited by Hobbycraft ranged from 21% crafting weekly in the North East, the highest rate reported, to 12% in London and 12% in Yorkshire, the lowest rates cited. The age pattern for reported mental health problems affecting daily life was 59% among 18- to 29-year-olds, 49% among 30- to 39-year-olds, 37% among 55- to 64-year-olds, 20% among 65- to 74-year-olds, and 14% among people over 75.
Hobbycraft also reported that 8.8 million people in Britain use arts and crafts to improve their mental health. This is a reported survey estimate, not a population count generated by the BLS time-use survey.
Wellbeing and achievement
Among Hobbycraft respondents, 53% said crafting improves their mood and 59% said it gives them a real sense of achievement. Completion was especially prominent: 69% reported satisfaction on completing a project. Other reported benefits included improved general wellbeing at 48%, reduced stress at 48%, spending less time on a phone, tablet, or laptop at 46%, boosted confidence at 21%, and social connection at 14%.
The survey also recorded an environmental motivation. One-quarter of respondents appreciated benefits such as recycling materials. This figure describes what respondents value; it does not measure the amount of material diverted from waste or the environmental impact of individual projects.
Support for structured creative activity was high in the same Great Britain research. Seventy-two percent of British adults believed health professionals should recommend structured arts and crafts to support mental health. Support rose to 79% among people with mental health challenges and was 78% among people with disabilities. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 85% supported arts and crafts in youth clubs and scouting organizations.
Crafting with children
The Hobbycraft findings also show broad support for creative activity in childhood. Eighty percent of adults agreed that children should spend more time on creative activities, while 6% disagreed. Eighty-eight percent agreed that creative activities are vital for children’s development, and 80% agreed that arts and crafts should be part of the school curriculum. Among parents, 89% agreed children should spend less time on screens.
Support does not remove practical barriers. Seventy-one percent of parents said they need more help encouraging children to craft. The most frequently cited barriers were time constraints at 27%, a child’s lack of interest at 24%, screen time at 23%, and the cost of materials at 23%. Mess was cited by 14%, while 9% said they did not know enough about equipment or materials.
These results suggest that accessible DIY guides can address more than project ideas. Clear material lists, short activities, low-mess methods, and guidance for choosing equipment directly correspond to barriers reported by parents. The survey figures do not establish that a particular guide will overcome those barriers, but they identify the obstacles respondents mentioned most often.
How people learn and find ideas
Websites and blogs were the most cited overall inspiration source in the Hobbycraft research, at 27%. Books and magazines were cited by 24%, and friends by 22%. YouTube was cited as an inspiration source by 21% overall. In a separate learning question, 34% said they had used YouTube tutorials to learn a craft.
Age differences were visible online. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 42% found inspiration on Instagram, 33% on Pinterest, and 25% on TikTok. Fifty-two percent of this age group had used YouTube tutorials to learn a craft. Among people over 75, 41% turned to books and magazines for inspiration, 23% looked to websites, 16% cited YouTube, and 13% had used YouTube tutorials to learn a craft.
Gender differences also appeared in tutorial use: 36% of women had used YouTube tutorials to learn a craft, compared with 30% of men. Learning did not happen only online. Forty-one percent of people aged 30 to 39 cited parents as their craft teachers, 30% overall said school or college helped them learn craft skills, 17% learned through in-person workshops, and 11% through online workshops.
The preferred setting was usually independent and home-based. Seventy-nine percent preferred solo crafting at home, rising to 85% among 18- to 29-year-olds. Eighteen percent enjoyed arts and crafts at home with a partner, 14% enjoyed hobbies and crafts at home with their children, and 6% crafted at home with other adults in sip-and-paint-style gatherings. Ten percent preferred pursuing arts and crafts with friends in a social setting, 6% preferred informal group settings, and 6% chose formal classes or workshops.
The crafts people want to try
Hobbycraft reported that 15% of British adults wanted to try pottery, ahead of baking, sewing, crocheting, and art. Six percent said they currently practised pottery. Baking was named by 11% as something they wanted to learn, crochet by 10%, and sewing and art by 8% each.
Mood-related choices were led by baking: 43% said they bake to lift their mood, 31% craft art for that reason, and 20% sew. There were marked differences by gender in selected activities. Forty-three percent of men said baking to lift mood was their top craft, and 30% of men chose baking as their top practice. Model making was reported by 27% of men and 5% of women, while sewing was reported by 30% of women and 4% of men.
Craft participation has also changed for some respondents. Eighteen percent said they had taken up arts and crafts over the previous five years, and 10% took up crafting between early 2020 and 2021. Among men, 22% had taken up crafting over the previous five years and 12% did so between early 2020 and 2021.
Television was one reported influence. Fifteen percent said The Great British Bake Off influenced their crafting habits, followed by The Repair Shop at 10%, The Great British Sewing Bee at 9%, The Great Pottery Throw Down at 6%, and Portrait Artist of the Year at 3%.
Retail signals from craft demand
Hobbycraft’s online search and sales figures show strong interest in several project categories, although these are company-specific retail measures rather than estimates of all British craft activity. In 2024, sales of crochet products on Hobbycraft.co.uk were up 98% year on year. Searches for “crochet kit” rose 64%, and searches for “crochet pattern” rose 87%.
Pottery and clay showed larger increases in the reported retail data. Hobbycraft.co.uk searches for clay increased 345% in the past 12 months compared with the prior year. Online sales of clay products increased 110% in 2024 versus 2023, and pottery-kit sales increased 99% in the past 12 months versus the prior year. Searches for sip-and-paint products increased 1,950% in 2024 versus 2023. Online sales of the Mini Easel and Canvas Set rose 149%, while sales of the Mini Canvas 4 Pack rose 138%.
Baking was another strong category. In 2025, searches for baking products on Hobbycraft.co.uk were up 152% year on year. Hobbycraft reported online sales growth of 135% for baking products in 2024 and 148% for its Whisk baking range during January to July 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. The periods differ, so the two growth figures should not be treated as one continuous annual measure.
The retailer figures align with the survey’s reported interest in pottery, baking, and crochet, but they measure searches and sales on one website. They are useful signals for project demand, not a complete market-size estimate.
Separate investor-presentation figures from JOANN describe a U.S. craft retailer at a different measurement point. As of October 28, 2023, JOANN operated 829 stores across 49 states, and its marketing database contained 77 million customers. The company reported more than 14.5 million mobile-app downloads, while about 30% of online sales were picked up in store, including curbside pickup.
JOANN said textiles generated $1.2 billion in sales through week 52, equal to 58% of total sales, and its top four textile categories totaled $748 million, up 7% year over year. Its online sales were reported to have grown at a 24% compound annual growth rate from FY19 to FY24E, where FY24E was an estimate. Since July 2023, e-commerce sales had grown 9% versus the prior year.
The same presentation reported February sales of $143.5 million, down 5.8% year over year and 5.5% on a comparable-store basis. February e-commerce sales were up 6% year over year and represented 15% of total company sales; transactions were nearly flat at 0.1% growth. Textile sales were down 1.5% versus the prior year, compared with a 12.5% decline in non-textiles. These JOANN figures are company reporting and should be kept separate from Great Britain survey findings and Hobbycraft’s website metrics.