The FINANCIAL — Summer is almost over and according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, reading and playing games continues to be the most popular activities of the summer.
Most adults (69%) said they read a book, 60% watched fireworks or 59% played games with friends or family members at some point during the summer.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) also had cookouts or barbecues.
A year ago, reading, fireworks, board games and cookouts were also the most popular summer activities.
Slightly less popular activities included swimming in a pool or lake (52%) or attending a movie in a movie theatre (48%).
The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on August 25-26, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Vacationing with friends or family (36%), going to the beach (35%), or attending an outdoor concert or theater events (27%) were the most unpopular.
A separate Rasmussen Reports survey found that 52% of adults who took a vacation this summer had to cut back on their vacation expenses. Almost half (45%) did not.
More women read, went to the beach, had a cookout or attended movies than men. More men, on the other hand, watched fireworks, went swimming or attended concert events than women.
Americans were slightly more active this year than last year. For example, movie attendance rose seven points from a year ago and swimming went up six points from last year. Reading, playing board games and watching fireworks jumped, but only slightly, however.
On the flip side, hosting cookouts dropped 11 points from a year ago, as did vacationing by eight points.
Even though summer doesn’t actually end until September 22, just five percent (5%) of adults nationwide said that the summer of 2010 was the best ever. Forty-five percent (45%) rated it as good or excellent. A third (31%) gave it a fair rating, while 18% rated it as poor.
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