Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times  Stephen Nathan, a retired human resources director, at the fire department where he works in Fayetteville, N.Y., a suburb of Syracuse.  STEPHEN NATHANâS wife persuaded him to retire at age 62, telling him it was too much â and too risky â for him to continue driving 60 miles each way to and from his job in upstate New York.  But ever since Mr. Nathan retired from his position as director of human resources at Hobart and William Smith Colleges nine years ago, he has remained hugely busy. Every Monday evening Mr. Nathan, who became a volunteer firefighter after retiring, reports to his local firehouse for drills and then sleeps there as part of a weekly rotation. The firehouse is in his hometown, Fayetteville, N.Y., a suburb of Syracuse.  Another day or two each week, he drives 50 miles or so making deliveries to people in their 80s and 90s for Meals on Wheels. And then there is the occasional golf game, working out on the treadmill at the Y.M.C.A., visiting battlefields and collecting military history books.  âI came up with this little philosophy. I wanted no longer to be a manager. I wanted to be a doer,â said Mr. Nathan, who, before his college job, was a human resources executive at an insurance company.  His unusually busy life makes clear that there is a lot a retiree can do with all that free time. But while individual retirees are probably as different as snowflakes, a deep dive into the demographic statistics of retirement shows that broader trends are shaping how retirees seek to enjoy the luxury of time â trends that confirm some popular assumptions about retirement while contradicting others.  For example, Mr. Nathan and his wife are like many empty-nesters nowadays who, unlike in the past, have opted not to pull up stakes and move to sunnier climes like Florida or Arizona. They want to continue to live near family â in this case, one of their daughters â and longtime friends. Others stay put because of the shaky economy or the difficulty of selling a home or getting a mortgage.  Staying put dovetails with another big trend: the growing number of retirees continuing to do some paid part-time work, for either their old employers or new ones. A retired accountant might still do some tax returns to bring in extra money, for instance, or a retiree relying on Social Security might work at Target or Kohlâs during the holiday season to earn extra cash.  Of the 42 million Americans age 65 or above, 18.7 percent remain in the labor force. That is a sharp increase from 13.9 percent a decade ago. According to the American Time Use Survey, in which the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed 136,000 people about how they spent their time, Americans over age 65 who were still employed typically worked six and a quarter hours a day.  On the other hand, the survey found that Americans over 65 devoted 6 hours and 40 minutes a day to socializing, relaxing and leisure. Thatâs nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes more than Americans ages 25 to 54.  While 5 percent of those over 65 reported sleeplessness, that age group as a whole defied the stereotype of older people requiring less sleep, reporting an average of 8 hours and 51 minutes of slumber daily.  Forty-three percent of those over 65 said they read regularly for personal interest, devoting nearly two hours a day. In contrast, only 15 percent of those ages 25 to 54 said they read regularly for personal interest, devoting about 80 minutes a day. (As for computer use, the statistics bureau said it did not have complete numbers.)  About 20 percent of Americans over 65 said they participated in sports or performed other exercise regularly, about 90 minutes each time.  Think retirees spend half their time playing golf? Think again. According to the Time Use Survey, only 1.6 percent of Americans older than 65 play golf regularly. They devote 4 hours and 20 minutes on average to the sport on the days they play. Slightly more popular is running or walking on a treadmill or using other cardiovascular equipment â men for 30 minutes on average and women for 45 minutes. (Sorry, no shuffleboard statistics.) Yoga has caught fire nationwide, but the survey showed that only one in 500 people 65 or older said they practiced yoga regularly.  âThere is no right way to retire,â said Harvey L. Sterns, the director of the Institute for Lifespan Development and Gerontology at the University of Akron in Ohio. âEveryone has to cut their own personal path.â  Almost 90 percent of older Americans said they regularly watched TV and movies at home, on average for 4 hours and 40 minutes a day. That compares with 3 hours and 10 minutes for Americans 25 to 54. Eleven percent of those 65 and over said they regularly played noncomputer games, like bridge or Scrabble, averaging 1 hour and 52 minutes of play.
More older Americans are employed part time after they retire, some because they want to and some because they need to.